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AN 



ACCOUNT 



PILGRIM CELEBRATION 



PLYMOUTH, AUGUST 1, 1853, 



CONTAINING 



A LIST OF THE DECORATIONS IN THE TOWN, AND 

CORRECT COPIES OF THE SPEECHES MADE 

AT THE DINNER-TABLE. 



REVISED BY THE PILGRIM SOCIETY. 




BOSTON: 

CROSBY, NICHOLS, AND COMPANY, 

111 Washington Street. 

1853. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by 

Crosbt, Nichols, and Company, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



•}- af^f 



camdridoe: 
metcaif and compan'v, pri-ntebs to the tiniversitr. 






PILGRIM CELEBRATION. 



It having been suggested, that a Celebration of the Anni- 
versary of the Embarkation of the Pilgrims from Delft Haven 
in 1620, would be a highly appropriate and fitting tribute 
to the memory of the Fathers of New England, and also 
a proper season for taking measures to erect a monument in 
the town, on or near " Forefathers' Rock," the Pilgrim Soci- 
ety, at a meeting held in May, authorized the Trustees of the 
Society to make the necessary preparations for such celebra- 
tion, to take place August 1, 1853, that day corresponding, in 
New Style, to July 22, Old Style, the day on Avhich the Pil- 
grims embarked from Delft Haven. 

At a meeting of the Trustees held June 16, 1853, the fol- 
lowing persons were chosen to act as the Committee of Ar- 
rangements : Richard Warren, Timothy Gordon, Andrew L. 
Russell, Eleazer C. Sherman, Trustees in Plymouth ; Na- 
thaniel B. Shurtleff, James T. Hayward, Trustees in Boston ; 
Charles H. Warren, and William S. Russell, members of the 
Society. 

The Committee appointed the following Marshals : — 

WILLIAM T.DAVIS, Chief Marshal. 
John D. Churchill, and Samuel H. Doten, Aids. 
William Atwood, 2d, William Bishop, Charles O. Churchill, Wins- 
low Drew, John H. Harlow, Barnabas Hedge, George H. Jackson, 



Thomas Loring, John J. Russell, Edward W. Russell, Nathaniel 
B. Spooner, George Simmons, Jr., Jeremiah Farris, Samuel Shaw, 
B. H. Holmes, Isaac Brewster, William R. Drew, George G. Dyer, 
D. J. Lane, William H, Nelson, George Bramhall, Jr., of Ply- 
mouth. 

Waterman French, Abington. 

P. D. Kingman, Bridgewater. 

Matthias Ellis, Carver. 

Henry Thomas, William Ellison, George B. Standish, of Dux- 
bury. 

James H. Mitchell, East Bridgewater. 

James H. Wilder, Hingham. 

Perez Simmons, Hanover. 

Nathaniel Gushing, Hanson. 

Robert Gould, Hull. 

J. S. Beal, Kingston. 

Harrison Staples, Lakeville. 

J. Sampson, Jr., Middleborough. 

W. N. Ellis, Marion. 

George M. Baker, Marshfield. 

G. W. Bryant, North Bridgewater. 

Z. Parker, Plympton. 

George F. Hatch, Pembroke. 

Theophilus King, Rochester. 

William P. Allen, Scituate. 

Albion Turner, South Scituate. 

Thomas Ames, West Bridgewater. 

Lewis Kenney, Wareham. 

Le Baron Russell, Rufus B. Bradford, Solomon J. Gordon, George 
P. Hayward, Thomas Russell, Isaac Winslow, and Pelham W. 
Hay ward, of Boston. 

Invitations were extended by the Committee of Arrange- 
ments to the following societies and individuals : — 

Plymouth Church, Southwark, England. 

The authorities of Delft Haven, Leyden, and Southampton. 

Presidents of New England Societies in New York, Brooklyn, N. Y., 



Philadelphia, Charleston, S. C, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louis- 
ville, St. Louis, New Orleans, Michigan, San Francisco, Wash- 
ington. 

President of United States. 

Ex-President of United States. 

Secretary of State, 

Attorney-General, U. S. 

Kentucky. 

New York. 

Massachusetts. 



Franklin Pierce, 

Millard Fillmore, 

William L. Marcy, 

Caleb Cushing, 

Hon. John J. Crittenden, 
« William H. Seward, 

Governor Clifford, 

Hon. Edward Everett, ") 
" Charles Sumner, ^ 
" Benjamin F. Hallett, 
" Nathaniel P. Banks, 



Memb. Congress from Mass. 



" C. H. Warren, 

" George Bliss, 

" David Sears, 

" Rufus Choate, 

" Abbott Lawrence. 

" Robert C. Winthrop 

" Josiah Quincy. 

" William Appleton, 

" Charles W. Upham, " " 

" S. L. Crocker, " " 

" J. W. Edmands, " " 

" Tappan Wentworth, " " 

" Alexander DeWitt, " " 

" E. Dickinson, " " 

" J. Z. Goodrich, " " 

" Zeno Scudder, " " 

Lieut.-Governor Huntington, of Massachusetts 



United States Senators, Mass. 

District Attorney, Mass. 
President of Convention for Revis- 
ing the Constitution of Mass. 
President of Senate, Mass. 
Speaker of House of Repr., Mass. 
President of Cape Cod Association. 
Attorney-General, Mass. 



Judge Sprague, 

Hon. E. P. Little, 
" John G. Palfrey, 
" Thomas H. Perkins, 
" Stephen C. Phillips, 



United States District Court. 

Ex-Memb. Congress, Plymouth. 

Cambridge. 

Boston. 

Salem, 



Hon. Benjamin Seaver, 
" George S. HiUard, 
" Levi Lincoln, 
Isaac P. Davis, Esq., 
Rev. George W. Blagden, 
J. Prescott Hall, Esq., 
Hon. Ogden Hoffman, 
Hon. George Bancroft, 
Rev. Samuel Osgood, 
" E. H. Chapin, 
" William Adams, 
" H. W. Beecher, 
Hiram Fuller, Esq., 
Hon. John P. Kennedy, 
Rev. Francis Wayland, 
President Walker, 
" Woolsey, 
" Hopkins, 
" Hitchcock, 
Professor Park, 
Jared Sparks, Esq., 
Dr. Oliver W. Holmes, 
Mr. George Sumner, 
Rev. E. H. Sears, 
« W. P. Lunt, 
Epes Sargent, Esq., 
Henry W. Longfellow, Esq., 
Hon. Mr. Pettigru, 
Alfred Huger, Esq., 
Dr. Benjamin Huger, Esq., 
Richard*Yeadon, Esq., 
Thomas F. Capers, Esq., 
Hon. George Evans, 

" William P. Fessenden, 
" Judge Mitchell, 
George Watson, Esq., 
John Howland, Esq., 



Mayor of Boston. 
Boston. 

Worcester. 
Boston. 

New York. 



Brooklyn, N. Y. 

New York. 

Baltimore. 

President of Brown University. 

Harvard College. 

Yale 

Williams " 

Amherst " 

Andover Theol. Seminary. 

Ex-President Harvard College. 

Pittsfield. 

Boston. 

Wayland. 

Quincy. 

Boston. 

Cambridge. 

Charleston, S. C. 



Gardiner, Me. 
Portland, " 
Bridgewater. 
Roxbury. 
Providence, R. L 



John Whipple, Esq., 
Moses B. Ives, Esq. 
Robert H. Ives, Esq., 
Washington Irving, Esq., 
Charles Hudson, Esq., 
Charles Eames, 
Judge Elgee, 
Hon. George T. Davis, 
Robert W. Weir, Esq., 
Adjutant-General Stone, 
Colonel Ezra Lincoln, 
" George P. Sanger, 
" James M. Thompson, 
" W. J. Rotch, 
Lord Ellesmere, 
Sir Charles Lyell, 
Rev. James Kendall, 
" Charles S. Porter, 



Providence, R. I. 



New York. 

Boston. 

Union, Washington City. 

Louisiana. 

Greenfield. 

West Point. 

Boston. 



Springfield. 
New Bedford. 
England. 

Plymouth. 



Hon. J. G. Palfrey was detained at home by sickness. 
Hon. B. F. Hallett, Hon. N. P. Banks, and Hon. Rufus Choate 
accepted invitations to be present, but felt themselves com- 
pelled to be in their seats in the Convention, in session. Hon. 
Abbott Lawrence, J. Prescott Hall, Esq., and Hon. S. C. 
Phillips accepted invitations, but did not attend. No answers 
were received from Hon. William Appleton, Hon. George 
Bancroft, Hon. Ogden Hoffman, President Hitchcock, Profes- 
sor Park, Hon. Mr. Pettigru, Hon. W. P. Fessenden, Hon. 
Alexander DeWitt, Hon. J. Z. Goodrich, and John How- 
land, Esq. 

The following was the order of procession : — 

Military Escort, 

Consisting of the Standish Guards, Abington Artillery, Samoset 

Guards, and Halifax Light Infantry, accompanied by the 

Boston Brigade Band and the S. Abington Band. 

Aids. Chief Marshal. Aids. 

Marshal. President of the Pilgrim Societv. Marshal. 



8 



Officers of the Pilgrim Society. 

Committee of Arrangements. 

Committee of Reception. 

Marshal. Governor of the Commonwealth, Marshal. 

with his Aids and Body Guard, — the Corps of 

Independent Cadets. 

Marshal. Adjutant-General of the State. Marshal. 

Presidents of New England Societies of other States. 

Marshal. President of the Cape Cod Association, Marshal. 

Marshal. United States Senators. Marshal, 

President of the Senate. 

Members of Congress. 

Ex-Senators and Ex-Members of Congress, 

Marshal. United States District Attorney, Marshal. 

and Attorney General of Massachusetts. 

Marshal. Invited Guests. Marshal. 

Marshals. Members of the Cape Cod Marshals. 

Association. 

Members of the New England Society of New 

York, accompanied by the New York 

Light Guard with Dodworth's 

Band. 

Plymouth Brass Band. 

Marshals. Pilgrim Society. Marshals. 

Selectmen and other Officers 

of the Town of Plymouth. 

Clergy. 

Instructors of the Public Schools. 

Citizens from other Towns and Cities. 

Citizens of Plymouth. 

South Bridgewater Band. 

Plymouth Fire Department in Uniform, with 

their apparatus. 

The Fire Department appeared uncommonly well, and con- 
sisted of Niagara 1, Fountain 2, Rapid 3, and Torrent 4. 

The following is an account of the decorations in the 
streets : — 



9 



Arch trimmed with green, near the Railroad Station : — 
" Welcome to the Home of the Pilgrims." 
Court Street. 

Captain Nathaniel Spooner had his house tastily trimmed 
■with bunting and evergreen. 

Henry G. Andrews decorated the grounds in front of his 
residence with much elegance and taste, having near the street 
a Turkish tent, containing several fine pictures, the whole pre- 
senting a unique and beautiful appearance. The shrubbery 
was interspersed with flags and banners, and the fence fes- 
tooned with evergreen and bunting. Over the gateway was 
an arch, with the inscription : — 

" When the weary Pilgrim traversed this bleak coast, his step 
was lightened and his heart cheered by the thoughts of a virtuous 
posterity." 

At the corner of the fence was a bust of Daniel Webster, 
backed by a shield, with the motto : — 

" Union is Strength." 

Merritt Ryder, Edmund Robbins, Captain Joseph Wright, and 
J. B. Paulding had their residences very tastily arrayed with 
evergreens, flowers, flags, and bunting. 

The Samoset House was elegantly dressed with flags, stream- 
ers, and bunting. Over the ladies' entrance was a fine arch, 
bearing the inscription : — 

"Embarkation of the Pilgrims from Delft Haven, 1620, July 
22,0. S., August 1,N. S." 

In the centre of the balcony were a shield and spread eagle, 
with a group of beautiful banners. Over the public entrance 
the inscription : — 

" Pilgrims' Home," 

In the street an arch, trimmed with green, with the in- 
scription : — 

" Victims of Persecution, how wide an Empire acknowledges 
your sway ! " 

2 



10 



William H, Whitman erected a fine arch in front of his 
residence, hung his house with bunting, and presented a shield 
bearing the Winslow coat of arms, and a fac-simile of Gov. 
Edward Winslow's signature, with the date 1620. 

Thomas Hedge had his portico neatly festooned with bunt- 
ing, and several trees in front were gayly decked with numer- 
ous small flags. 

Isaac L. Hedge had lines of bunting stretched from his 
portico along the pathway to the street, and over his gateway a 
handsome arch, trimmed Avith evergreen, and bearing in letters 
formed of leaves the inscription : — 

" Delft Haven — 1620 — Plymouth." 
Over which a representation of the sea and a light-house, 
surmounted with the motto : — 

" Hope." 

E. B. Bramhall, a descendant of Elder Brewster, had his 
house trimmed with bunting, and displayed the inscription : — 
" Elder Brewster— 1620." 

James T. Hayward, Captain James Collins, and Lucius Pratt, 
each had his residence neatly decorated with evergreens and 
bunting. 

Southard Barnes had his house neatly trimmed, and pre- 
sented the inscription : — 

" The Solitary Place is made glad." 

In front of Pilgrim Hall, flanked on each side with the 
Dutch and English flags, was the inscription : — 

" Pilgrim Hall. 

" While on the waste of ocean, 
One hoary rock shall stand, 
Be this its latest legend, 
Here was the Pilgrim's land." 

A white flag with the Old Colony seal of 1620 was flying 
from the top of Pilgrim Hall. The columns of the portico 



11 



were decorated witli green, as was also the interior. Among 
the decorations were the names of the chief men who came in 
the Mayflower. 

Captain E. S. Turner had his house trimmed, and displayed 
the motto : — 

" Times aint now as they used to was," 

Messrs. Ephraim Finney and J. D. Churchill had their res- 
idence handsomely decorated, and displayed in letters of ever- 
green : — 

" This Land we love." 

Over the doorway was a miniature ship, underneath which 

was the word : — 

" Fortune." 

WiUiam B. Barnes displayed among his decorations the 

pithy sentence : — 

"August 1 — Forefathers' Day thawed out." 

Johnson Davee decorated his residence, and displayed the 
inscription : — 

" 1620— The Pilgrim's Motto —'Religious Liberty.' " 
Over this was a handsome cross of evergreen. 
E. C. Sherman and John A. Spooner had their dwellings 

neatly dressed in evergreens, bunting, &c., and exhibited the 

motto : — 

" Remember that ye are gathering to the spot which was once 
trodden by the steps of the homeless wanderer ; which was marked 
with the Pilgrim's staff, and watered with the Pilgrim's tears." 

Jason Hart's residence was arrayed with much taste and 
effect, with bunting, evergreens, &c. 

Putnam Kimball and Granville Gardner had their dwellings 
appropriately decorated, and displayed a handsome arch, bear- 
ing the simple word : — 

" Welcome." 

Andrew L. Russell displayed an arch with the inscription: — 
" Howland." 



12 



The Court-House was finely decorated, lines of bunting 
extending from the front to the iron fence in the square, and a 
portrait of Washington gracing the front of the building, with 
the inscription : — 

" Washington — Sacred to Liberty." 

Nathaniel C. Lanman and Bartlett Ellis each had his res- 
idence neatly trimmed. 

In front of the Court-House, across the street, with the 
American flag on each side, was the sentiment : — 

"All honor to the memory of our Fathers, who provided the 
surest safeguard of Liberty in establishing the supremacy of 
Law and the impartial administration of Justice." 

The next motto, with the American flag on each side, 
was : — 

" We come in our prosperity to remember your trials." 

Lysander Dunham, Mrs. Moulton, Daniel J. Lane, and 
William Thomas trimmed their houses in good taste, with bunt- 
ing and evergreens. 

Isaac N. Stoddard displayed a tasteful arch over his -gate- 
way, with a miniature ship suspended beneath, and bearing the 
inscription : — 

"Mayflower— 1850. 
Union— 1853." 

Jacob H. Loud had his house and grounds decorated with 
much taste, — festoons of bunting, evergreens, wreaths of 
flowers, &c. 

The Mansion-House was appropriately decked, and over 

the door was displayed the picture of an Indian mounted on 

horseback, engaged in the chase, with his bow-string drawn, in 

the act of discharging an arrow. At the side of the house, 

in the branches of a ti'ee, a miniature ship, over which the 

name : — 

" Mayflower." 

Across the street, with a flag on each side : — 



13 



"August, 1620. 
" Hail ! sons of the Pilgrims, assembled to pay 
Festivity's rite to our Fathers in glory ; 
May the ardor of friendship enlighten the lay, 

And their virtues be told while we glow with the story." 

Richard Warren, President of the Pilgrim Society, had his 
residence decorated in good taste, and exhibited the motto : — 

" On the day we celebrate, the germ of the future growth of 
America was comprehended within one weatherbeaten vessel." 

Main Street. 
Ballard's Saloon was handsomely decorated, and presented 
a bust of Webster, over Avhich was the sentiment delivered by 
the immortal statesman at the festival of the Pilgrim Society, 
Dec. 22,1820: — 

" We rejoice to behold this day." 
John Churchill had his store appropriately trimmed with 
American flags. 

Allen Danforth had his dwelling festooned with bunting, and 
displayed a shield with the words : — 

" Welcome Home." 

Across the street, with a flag on each side : — 

" Green are their bays — and greener still 

Shall round their spreading fame be wreathed, 
And regions now untrod shall thrill 

With reverence, when their names are breathed." 

Messrs. James Thurber and John Perkins had their resi- 
dence handsomely trimmed with evergreen, and over the door 
a bronze bust of Daniel Webster, with the motto : — 
" Great Examples are before us." 
Across the street, with a flag on each side : — 
" So long as centuries shall roll over this happy and rising na- 
tion, shall wealth and taste and talent resort to this hallowed spot, 
lo pay homage to the elder fathers of New England." 



14 



The Bank building was appropriately decked for the occa- 
sion, and displayed a bust of Webster. 

William S. Russell displayed a fine arch over his gateway, 
with the inscription : — 

" Ever green in our Memory — 1620." 
William H. Spear presented a bust of Webster, crowned 
with a wreath of laurel, with the date 1820, being the occasion 
of Mr. Webster's great speech at Plymouth. 

The office of the Plymouth Rock presented an obelisk taste- 
fully decked with evergreens and roses, and bearing a like- 
ness of President Pierce, with the inscription : — 

" Our Pilgrim Fathers." 
At the base of the obelisk : — 

" Plymouth Eock — first stepping-stone to the Temple of Lib- 
erty." 

On an arch, trimmed with evergreen, was this inscription : — 

" They rested the edifice of their civil and religious liberties on 
a foundation as pure and innocent as the snows around them. 
Blessed be the spot, the only one on earth where such a founda- 
tion was ever laid." 

Madam Warren had her doorway draped with American 
and Hungarian flags. 

William H. Smoot, Jason Hart, Thomas Bartlett, Dr. Web- 
ster, C. F. Easton, and Dr. Warren, each displayed appropri- 
ate decorations. 

Dr. Hubbard decorated his office, and displayed a miniature 
ship, with the motto : — 

" The Mayflower— New England's First Cradle." 

W. N. Jamieson & Co., Leyden Hall, decorated in good 
taste, and presented in evergreen : — 

" 1620." 

Tillsons, Tobey, & Tower, J. Washburn, and S. Barnes, also 
displayed fitting decorations. 



15 



Jolin T. Hall exliibited a handsome arch, with the inscrip- 
tion : — 

"Plymouth — the birthplace of the Nation. 

Behold her children." 
"W. Bishop's bookstore was well trimmed, and exhibited the 
TTords : — 

" In Memory of the Pilgrim Fathers." 

W. Atwood, Zaben Olney, Benjamin Swift, and Reuben Pe- 
terson presented handsome decorations ; as did also Thomas 
Loring, who resides on the spot where it is supposed the colo- 
nists once signed a treaty with the celebrated Indian chieftain, 
Massasoit. 

Across the street, with a flag on each side : — 
" And here, on the spot where New England began to be, we 
come to learn of our Pilgrim Fathers a deep and lasting lesson of 
virtue, enterprise, patience, zeal, and faith." 

Across the street, with a flag on each side : — 

" Leyden Street, 

The first street laid out, December, 1620." 

" New England's Fathers. 

A noble Colony of educated, firm men, valiant soldiers, honorable 

women." 

William H. Jackson and WilUam R. Drew decorated in fine 
style. 

Ephraun Spooner presented in evergreen letters : — 
" They sowed in tears, — we reap in joy." 

The New York Light Guard head-quarters had a spread 
eagle over the doorway, which was draped with American flags, 
and displayed a flag with the inscription : — 
" New York Light Guard Head-Quarters, August 1, 1853. Ready 
to protect what we "have inherited." 

Thomas Russell, Esq., on a line of flags, presented this motto, 
which was peculiarly appropriate : — 

" Their hill of graves behind us. 
Their watery way before," — 



16 



in allusion to the ancient cemetery back on tlie hill, and the 

harbor at the foot of the street. On the reverse was : — 

" They sought a home and freedom here, two hundred years ago." 

Leander Lovell decorated his residence finely, with festoons 
of bunting, wreaths of evergreen and flowers, &c. 

Dr. James Kendall displayed, surrounded by a border of 
evergreen, the inscription : — 

" So let it live unfading — the memory of the dead." 
On the right the inscription : — 

" Parsonage Lot of the Fh'st Church — Given March 1st, 1664, 
by Bridget and Samuel Fuller, the widow and son of Samuel Fuller." 

James Kendrick's shop was neatly trimmed. 
Across the street, with a flag on each side : — 

" Site of the Common House built in 1620, where Robert Cush- 
man delivered his first Sei'mon, Nov. 1621. ' It is not with us as 
with men whom small things can discourage.' " 

Water Street. 

Atwood L. Drew's store was trimmed with bunting. 

J. Farris and Rufus Churchill each displayed lines of flags 
across the street. 

Elkanah Barnes displayed the motto : — 

" Old Plymouth to the rescue." 

Over the rock on which the Pilgrims landed was an arch of 
evergreen, the pillars of which were inscribed as follows : — 

" No New Englander could be willing to have that Rock buried or 

forgotten." 
" This rock has become an object of veneration in the United 

States." 

Across the top of the arch : — 

" A rock in the wilderness welcomed our sires 
From bondage far over the dark rolling sea ; 
On that holy altar they kindled the fires 

Which glow in our bosoms, Jehovah, for thee." 



17 



William Collingwood had his store neatly trimmed with 

evergreen. 

North Street. 

" Coles Hill, — The first burial-place of the Pilgrims. On this 
spot have laid to rest together the true, the pious, the beautiful, till 
time shall be no more." 

Jacob Jackson's fence was festooned with evergreens. 

Dr. C. T. Jackson presented a beautiful arch, decorated 
with flowers and evergreens, with the inscription : — 
" Our fathers, whose virtues survive the grave." 

Phinehas Wells displayed appropriate decorations. 

Anthony Morse presented the motto : — 

" Great Principles assbciated with Plymouth Rock." 

Captain John Russell's residence and portico were finely 

draped, and there was a tasteful arch over his gate, with the 

words : — 

" Honor to the Pilgrims." 

The American and English flags waved from the trees in the 
yard. 

Across the street : — 

" A noble colony of devoted Christians," whose planting has 
changed the history of the world." 

T. Gordon, Mrs. Spooner, Isaac C. Jackson, Mrs. Levi Barnes, 
Abraham Jackson, James A. Danforth, and Benjamin Weston, 
each displayed tasteful and appropriate decorations. 

Over the door of Mrs. Barnes's house was inscribed : — 

" The Moral Electricity of the Pilgrims. May the Matrons 
of the Earth take a shock from the Leyden Jar." 

From the house of Abraham Jackson to Mrs. Barnes's, there 
was erected a splendid arch, composed wholly of green trees, 
with this inscription : — 

" John Robinson, the Keystone of the Pilgrim Arch." 
Mrs. Joann Davis, a lineal descendant of Peregrine White, 
the first person of European parentage born on these shores, 
3 



18 



had her residence decorated in good taste ; on a handsome arch 
was inscribed : — 

" White." 

Across the street, with a jfiag on each side, was the inscrip- 
tion : — 

"The Pilgrim Mothers — who 'midst sufferings and trial rocked 
the cradle of New England." 

Joseph B. Collingwood's dwelling was neatlj trimmed. 
Mrs. Daniel Jackson displayed an arch, bearing the motto : — 

" They sowed in tears — we reap in joy." 
Josiah Robbins's residence was handsomely arrayed with fes- 
toons and wreaths of evergreens, flowers, &c. 

Near the head of the street, with a flag on each side, was the 
motto : — 

" The Pilgrim spirit has not fled ; 
It walks in noon's broad light, 
And it watches the bed of the glorious dead 
With the holy stars by night." 
Town Square. 
This is the locality where the Pilgrims had an interview with 
old Samoset." On this square the house of Isaac B. Rich, on 
the site of the residence of Governor Bradford, was appro- 
priately trimmed, and bore the inscription : — 
" Gov. Bradford — 1620." 
C. M. Howard and A. Doming draped their dwelling neatly 
with bunting and evergreen, and presented the motto : — 
" Our Fathers, where are they } " 

From the trees in the square, with a flag on either side, an 
inscription : — 

" The first House of Worship built 1637 ; second 1683 ; third 
1744 ; fourth 1831 ; fifth 1840." 
" How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that 
bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good 
tidings of good, that publisheth salvation." 



19 



Market Street. 
Across the street, with flags : — 

" And beyond whose perilous path are hung the rainbow, and 
the western star of Empire." 

Benjamin Churchill's shop jvas neatly trimmed with small 

flags. 

Barnabas H. Holmes exhibited a miniature man-of-war, with 

the words : — 

" Safely Anchored." 

Captain Robert Co wen, B. C. Finney, Samuel Talbot, and 
J. B. Atwood, all displayed decorations got up with much taste 
and eflect. 

High Street. 

The Adelphian (Odd Fellow) Hall was finely decorated, 
and stretched across the street a line of flags, with the motto : — 
" Friendship, Love, and Truth." 

Benjamin C. Finney, Barnabas Churchill, David Holmes, and 
George Cooper had their residences neatly decked in gala cos- 
tume. 

Winslow Tribhle displayed a bronze bust of "Webster, tastily 
trimmed, with the inscription : — 

" Daniel." 

John Nickerson decorated his residence finely with vari- 
colored drapery, evergreens, and flowers. 

Samuel Alexander displayed appropriate decorations. 

Across the street, with a flag on each side : — 

" They founded a great realm, an imperial patrimony of liberty : 
the first effectual counterpoise in the scale of human right." 

In Summer Street a large arch was erected, covered with 
greens, and bearing this inscription : — 

" The noblest genius has been called into exercise to display 
their merits worthily, and to trace the consequences of their daring 
enterprise." 

Heman Bobbins had his portico tastily trimmed with ever- 
greens and oak leaves. 



20 



Nathaniel Wood also displayed handsome decorations, and 
the motto ; — 

" Welcome." 

Rev. A. Harvey and E. S. Bartlett decorated their dwelling 
and gateway in excellent taste, and. displayed the inscriptions: — 

" 1620 — Delft Haven— We trust in God." 

" Our Fathers — we honor them." 

" 1620 — the Fathers suffered. 1853 — the Children enjoy." 

Also two flags across the street, with the inscription : — 

" Pilgrim's Legacy — Light, Liberty, Law." 

Captain Elkanah C. Finney and Henry Mills had their resi- 
dence decorated with folds of bunting, evergreens, flowers, &c., 
arrayed with fine taste and effect, in the centre of which was 
a beautiful cross of evergreen and roses. 

Across the street, with a flag on each side : — 

" But we commemorate the birth-day of all New England, not 
of one institution, but of all insthutions within our happy borders." 

Ellis DreAV, John Eddy, Caleb Ryder, Samuel Shaw, and 
John E. Dunham displayed handsome and appropriate decora- 
tions. 

Micah Richmond and Isaac Lucas displayed a line of flags, 
with the inscription : — 

" Twine, gratitude, a wreath for them 
More deathless than diadem, 
Who to life's noblest end 

Gave up life's noblest powers, 
And bade the legacy descend , 

Down, down to us and ours. " 

On the reverse : — 

" Here shall the dwellers of the land be seen 
To keep the memory of the Pilgrim green." 

Schuyler Sampson had his house trimmed, and presented the 
inscription : — 

" They are with us." 
Rapid Engine Co. No. 3 had their house finely decorated. 



21 



Benjamin Hathaway had his residence decorated, and showed 
the motto : — 

" The Pilgrim Spirit is not dead." 

George W. Virgin and Justus Harlow also decorated. 
Over a pump at the road-side, on the " Town Brook," was 
the inscription : — . 

" Freely drink and quench your thirst, 
Here drank the Pilgrims first." 

On Pleasant Street approaching Training Green, where the 
tent was erected, was an arch inscribed : — 

"Massasoit, — The friend and ally of the Pilgrims." 
" Samoset, Squanto, Hobbamock, — Natives of tried fideUty." 

On a line of flags : — 

" All the tears and heart-breakings at the ever-memorable part- 
ing at Delft Haven had the happiest influence on the rising desti- 
nies of New England." 

The house of David L. Harlow was appropriately trimmed, 
as was also the Methodist Church. 

Warren IMacomber decorated his house and displayed the in- 
scription : — 

" Not winter's sullen face ; 
Not the fierce. tawny race 

In arms arrayed ; 
Not hunger shook their faith, 
Not sickness' hateful breath, 
Nor Carver's early death 
Their souls dismayed." 

Samuel H. Davee had his fence trimmed, and displayed the 
words, in evergreen : — 

" The Pilgrims." 

A line of evergreens and flags also extended across the street 
to the house occupied by Messrs. Wm. Drew, Geo. A. Hath- 
away, Wm. D. Sherman, and Ebenezer Nelson, which was neatly 
trimmed and bore the motto : — 



22 



" Keep their Memory green." 
Plymouth High School-House was decorated with much taste 
and effect, with festoons, stars, and wreaths of evergreen, and 
bore the inscription : — 

" Education, the Guardian of Liberty." 
Also in evergreen letters : — 

" P. H. S. — 1849." 
Mrs. Isaac Barnes and David Drew had their residences 
handsomely decorated. 

Green Stkeet. 
Captain Samuel Doten had his yard trimmed with bunting, 
and across the street a couple of American flags with the 
mottoes : — 

" Behold our Inheritance." 

" Lord, keep their Memory green. 

At the corner of Green and Sandwich Streets, Corban Barnes 
displayed a line of flags, and at the corner of the Green, on 
Sandwich Street, Samuel Bradford had a Hne of flairs. 

This portion of the display reflected infinite credit on the 
pubHc spirit and fine taste of the citizens of Plymouth. Some 
of the streets presented a most beautiful appearance, from the 
combined effect of waving flags, lines of streamers, and festoons 
of evergreen, scattered in rich profusion as they were over the 
exteriors of the houses ; while the numerous apt and pithy 
mottoes contributed greatly to enlist the admiration and draw 
forth the encomiums of the throngs who filled the streets. 

The New York Light Guard, with Dodworth's Band, arrived 
in town on Sunday afternoon, and went directly to quarters 
provided for them in Leyden Street. 

Monday morning was ushered in by the ringing of bells, and 
a national salute. 

At nine o'clock, services were performed in the First Church, 
as follows : — 

Voluntary on the Organ. 



23 



The folloTving hymn, -vvritten for the occasion by the Rev. 
E. H. Sears, Avas sung by a select choir, under the direction 
of B. F. Baker, Esq., of Boston. 

Beneath the hallowed ground where now ye tread, 
New England's first and holiest martyrs sleep ; 

And ocean waves, to celebrate the dead, 
Lift the eternal anthems of the deep. 

And here their mighty spirits linger long, 

They walk abroad through all the hallowed air, 

And where a pulse for freedom beats more strong, 
Know ye that Pilgrim blood is coursing there ! 

O ye, whose sacred dust on Burial Hill 
Kind mother Earth in holy trust contains ! 

Above the cause ye loved keep watching still. 
And roll your fire through all our languid veins ! 

Then from New England's hills, afar and near, 
A light shall stream in columns to the skies. 

And like a new Aurora shall appear 

Where'er a race in chains and darkness lies ! 

The Rev. James Kendall, D. D., the senior pastor of the 
First Church of Plymouth, (settled on the 1st day of January, 
1800,) then offered the following 

PRAYER. 

O Thou, God of our fathers ! — Thou hast been our dwelling- 
place in all generations. Who is a God, save the Lord ? And 
who is a rock, save our God ? All power is thine in heaven and 
earth. By Thee nations are planted, and by Thee also are they 
destroyed. Thou speakest, — and a little one becomes a thou- 
sand, and a small one a strong nation ; and Thou, Lord, canst 
hasten it in thy time. 

Thy providential government pervades the universe, and ex- 
tends to all worlds, to all beings, and to all things. All events. 



24 



whether prosperous or adverse, whether they relate to communi- 
ties or individuals, whether they respect the kingdoms of this 
world or that kingdom which is not of this world and which can- 
not be destroyed, are under the guidance of unerring wisdom, and 
subject to the control of almighty power. The Lord reigneth, 
and he reigneth in righteousness, — let the earth rejoice. 

While we revere thine attributes, and admire and adore Thee 
for thy perfections, we would praise Thee for thy mercies. We 
bless and magnify thy great and glorious name, above all, for thine 
unspeakable gift, even the gift of thine own Son, the anointed 
messenger of grace and truth, of light and life, to a dark, erring, 
and guilty worid. We bless Thee for the glorious Gospel of Jesus 
Christ, which reveals to us the true way to eternal life, and holds 
out for our guidance and imitation the example of wise and good 
men, who, through faith and patience and fortitude, obtained a 
good report, and, finally, inherited the promises. We bless Thee 
for thy paternal love, thine ever guardian care, manifested to thy 
Church in every period of its existence. Thy providence has been 
to it a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night, to guide, to pro- 
tect, and to save. Thou didst open for it a highway in the sea, 
and mark out its path in the wilderness. When there was no 
bread, Thou gavest bread from heaven. And where there was no 
water, at thy bidding the rock opened its treasure and sent forth 
living water. Though sometimes on fire, yet, like the bush in 
Horeb, it was not consumed. And though ofttimes bleeding, yet 
was it nurtured and increased by its own blood. 

We have heard with our ears, and our fathers have told us, 
what things Thou didst for them in their days in times of old ; 
how Thou broughtest them as a vine out of Egypt ; how Thou 
didst drive out the heathen and plant them ; how Thou didst scatter 
the nations that delight in war, and prepare room before them, 
didst cause them to take deep root, and, behold, they have filled 
the land. This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our 
eyes; for they got not the land in possession by their own sword, 
neither did their own arm save them ; but thy right hand, and 
thine almighty arm, and the light of thy countenance, because 
Thou hadst a favor unto them. 



25 



We rejoice in the return of this memorable anniversary, with 
all its interesting and hallowed associations. We bless Thee for 
the privilege and the facilities afforded for bringing together so 
goodly an assemblage of the sons and daughters of a pious ances- 
try, to commemorate their virtues, and the interposition of a kind 
and merciful Providence, during their sufferings and sacrifices for 
conscience' sake, and the security and enjoyment of civil and re- 
ligious liberty. When called to embark and go out into a land 
which they knew not, thy presence went with them, and thine arm 
was outstretched for their support, protection, and deliverance. 
Thou didst stand by them, and spread over them thy shield, while 
in perils by their own countrymen, in perils in strange cities, in 
perils in the sea, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the wilder- 
ness, in perils among false brethren ; in weariness and painfulness, 
in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold 
and nakedness ; until they finally found a resting-place on this 
hallowed spot, consecrated by their prayers, their tears, and their 
graves ; and where Thou didst nourish and feed them from the 
abundance of the sea, and treasures hid in the sand. They were 
indeed found of Thee in a desert land, a waste, howling wilder- 
ness. And as an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttercth over her 
young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them 
on her wings, so the Lord alone did lead them, and there was no 
strange God with them. With thine arm to sustain them, and the 
light of thy countenance to cheer, to guide, and to comfort them, 
though troubled on every side, yet were they not distressed 3 per- 
plexed, indeed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken ; 
cast down, but not destroyed. 

We thank Thee for all the free, the excellent institutions Thou 
didst dispose and enable them to establish for the benefit of their 
posterity, and for example to the world. Above all, we bless Thee 
that Thou didst give them a heart to plant the tree of life in this 
new world, and that, under thy nurturing care, it has grown and 
spread, sending forth its branches to the east, and to the west, and 
to the north, and to the south, until its healing influence is felt 
from river to river, and from sea to sea. 

We rejoice, that, through the instrumentality of a pious ances- 

4 



26 



try, we, their descendants, were born in a land of Gospel light, 
that the day-spring from on high hath visited us, that the Sun of 
Righteousness hath risen upon us with healing in his wings ; that 
Thou hast set up thy tabernacle among us, and thy sanctuary in 
the midst of us, and that we can now say, " Come, and let us go 
up to the mount of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, 
and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths." 

May we be truly humble for every deviation from the purity of 
their example, the steadfastness of their faith, their love of the 
truth, their estimation of the value of civil and religious liberty 
and the rights of conscience, and the ardor and elevation of their 
piety ; and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, that we 
may walk therein, and find rest unto our souls. 

May we be grateful to a kind and benevolent Providence, which 
has blessed us, their posterity, with pleasant places, and a goodly 
heritage, as the fruit of their labor and their sacrifices. May the 
protection and favor shown to our fathers in the darkest period of 
their history increase our confidence in an overruling Providence, 
confirm our faith in the religion they professed, strengthen our 
attachment to the institutions which they founded, and of which we 
are reaping the benefit, and fasten our hold more strongly on those 
great Protestant principles and precious promises which inspired 
them with a desire to know the truth, and a resolution to follow it, 
to keep their minds open to the light, and to stand fast in the lib- 
erty Avherewith Christ had made them free. 

But while, as the descendants of Protestant Christians, we enjoy 
religious liberty, and claim and exercise the rights of conscience, 
may it never be our condemnation, that our liberty has become a 
cloak for licentiousness, and our right of conscience a plea for 
exemptions from the requirements and sanctions of religion, the 
obligations of morality, and the restraints of law. But under the 
influence and guidance of Christian truth and a Christian spirit, 
may this be the resolution of our hearts, and may we have grace 
to abide by it : " All that the Lord hath said unto us, that will we 
do, and be obedient." 

Smile, we beseech Thee, O Thou who art governor among the 
nations, still smile upon our beloved country ! Be Thou our God, 



27 



as Thou wast the God of our fathers. Throughout all generations, 
wilt Thou choose this favored land for the lot of thine inheritance. 
Suffer no root of bitterness, springing up within us, to trouble us. 
Suffer no weapon formed against us from without to prosper. 
May the evils which we suffer, or fear, be speedily removed, and 
our light rise in obscurity, and the darkness become as the noon- 
day. 

We pray for our rulers, for the President of the United States, 
for the Governor of the Commonwealth, and for all in authority 
over us. Vouchsafe to them the wisdom that cometh from above. 
Help them to deliberate and act with a single eye to the peace, the 
union, the prosperity, the liberty, andti'ue glory of the whole 
country. May the resolution of the patriarch be inscribed upon 
their administration, to be read of all men : " Till I die, I will not 
remove my integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast, 
and will not let it go : my heart shall not reproach me so long 
as I live." And under an enlightened and liberal administration, 
aided by the power and influence of pure religion and sound 
morals, may we as a people lead quiet and peaceable lives, in all 
godliness and honesty. And may all classes of our citizens be 
protected and secured in the peaceable possession and enjoyment 
of their just rights and liberties. May intelligence and virtue keep 
pace with the privileges and advantages with which we are fa- 
vored, and render us worthy of the liberties which we enjoy. 

While we are reminded, by this day's commemoration, of the 
blessings we enjoy, we would remember, in our devotion and fes- 
tivities, the benighted and oppressed of all lands. May the yoke 
of the oppressor everywhere be broken, and the oppressed go free. 
Give them increasing light, and increasing virtue ;and with knowl- 
edge and virtue, and due subjection to the requirements of religion 
and the restraint of law, vouchsafe to them the blessings of civil 
and religious liberty. 

And wilt Thou speed the progress of intellectual light, useful 
learning, pure religion, equal laws,, well-regulated liberty, and 
righteous government, throughout the world ; and may the time 
soon come, when every nation and kindred and tongue and peo- 
ple, living under the light, cherishing the spirit, and exemplifying 



28 



the virtues and graces of the Gospel, shall unite with the heavenly- 
hosts in ascribing glory to God in the highest, because there is 
peace on earth, and good-will to men. 

We supplicate thy blessing upon the society to whose enterprise 
and agency, under Providence, we owe much of the pleasure and 
interest of this day's commemoration. Vouchsafe to its Presi- 
dent and his associates thy continued favor, assistance, and bless- 
ing. As a reward for their labors and efforts, wilt Thou still 
smile upon the remaining services and festivities of the day ; and 
grant that whether we eat or drink, whether we speak or hear, 
or whatever we do, it may be to thy glory through Christ our 
Lord. Amen. 

The beautiful hymn written bj Mrs. Hemans, commencing 
with the words, " The breaking waves dashed high," was very 
finely sung by Mr. Baker and his choir. 

Rev. Dr. Blagden of Boston read appropriate selections 
from the Scriptures, in the following order : — 

Our fathers trusted in thee : they trusted, and thou didst de- 
liver them. 

They cried unto thee, and were delivered ; they trusted in thee, 
and were not confounded. — Ps. xxii. 4, 5. 

We have heard with our ears, God, our fathers have told us, 
what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. 

For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, 
neither did their own arm save them ; but thy right hand, and 
thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst 
a favor unto them. — Ps. xliv. 1,3. 

Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem ; Praise thy God, O Zion. 

He maketh peace in thy borders, and fiUest thee with the finest 
of the wheat. 

He hath not dealt so with any nation ; and as for his judgments, 
they have not known them.. Praise ye the Lord. — Ps. cxlvii. 12, 
14, 20. 

And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judg- 
ments so righteous, as all this law which I set before you this day? 



29 



Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest 
thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they 
depart from thy heart all the days of thy life ; but teach them thy 
sons, and thy sons' sons. 

Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst 
of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and 
by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm, and 
by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for 
you in Egypt before your eyes ? 

Unto thee it was showed, that thou mightest know that the Lord 
he is God ; there is none else besides him. 

And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed 
after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power 
out of Egypt ; 

To drive out nations from before thee, greater and mightier than 
thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, 
as it is this day. 

Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the 
Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath : there 
is none else. 

Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, 
which I command thee this day, that it may go well whh thee, 
and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy 
days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, for ever. 
— Deut. iv. 8, 9, 34, 35, 37 - 40. 

Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the 
land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your 
fathers ? 

Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their chil- 
dren, and their children another generation. — Joel i. 2, 3, 

Children's children are the crown of old men ; and the glory of 
children are their fathers. — Prov. xvii. 6. 

God be merciful unto us, and bless us ; and cause his face to 
shine upon us. Selah. 

Let the people praise thee, O God ; let all the people praise 
thee. 

O, let the nations be glad, and sing for joy : for thou shalt judge 



30 



the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. 
Selah. 

God shall bless us ; and all the ends of the earth shall fear 
him. — Ps. Ixvii. 1, 3, 4, 7. 

That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth ; that 
our daughters may be as corner-stones, polished after the simili- 
tude of a palace. 

Happy is that people that is in such a case ; yea, happy is that 
people whose God is the Lord. — Ps. cxliv. 12, 15. 

Who are Israelites ; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the 
glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the ser- 
vice of God, and the promises. 

Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ 
came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. — Romans 
ix. 4, 5. 

Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings : be instructed, ye judges of 
the earth. 

Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, 
when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that 
put their trust in him. — Ps. ii. 10, 12. 

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord ; and the people 
whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. 

Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in 
thee. — Ps. xxxiii. 12, 22. 

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 

The Lord of hosts is with us ; the God of Jacob is our refuge. 
Selah. — Ps. xlvi. 1,7. 

Hymn, written by Rev. Dr. Flint : — 

In pleasant lands have fallen the lines 

That bound our goodly heritage. 
And safe beneath our sheltering vines 

Our youth is blessed, and soothed our age. 

What thanks, O God, to thee are due. 
That thou didst plant our fathers here. 

And watch and guard them as they grew, 
A vineyard to the planter dear ! 



31 



The toils they bore our ease have wrought ; 

They sowed in tears, in joy we reap. 
The birthright they so dearly bought 

We 'U guard till we with them shall sleep. 

Thy kindness to our fathers shown, 
In weal and woe, through all the past, 

Their grateful sons, O God, shall own, 

While here their name and race shall last. 

The religious observances closed with a benediction by Rev. 
Charles S. Porter. 

After these services- were over, the procession was formed, 
under the direction of the Chief Marshal, and marched through 
Court, Main, Leyden, Water, North, Market, High, Bartlett, 
Summer, and Pleasant Streets, to the Town Green, where a 
pavilion had been erected, in which twenty-five hundred 
could be seated. There were at least seven hundred ladies 
there, when the procession arrived; they took seats on one 
side of each table. The pavilion was decorated with the 
English and Dutch flags, with thirty-one shields hanging, 
representing the States of the Union. On one side of the 
pavilion was this inscription : — 

" The Fathers of the Country, — the men who, as they first trod 
the soil of New England, scattered the principles of republican 
freedom and national independence." 

And opposite to it was this : — 

" They knew they were Pilgrims, and looked not much on these 
things ; but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest country, 
and quieted their spirits." 

The President called on Rev. Wm. Adams of New York to 
ask the Divine blessing, which he did in the following words : — 

" Our Father and our God, we ask thy blessing upon us as we 
have assembled to commemorate thy ways of wisdom and of won- 
der, and to offer a memorial of praise for what thou hast done for 



32 



us and our fathers. We thank thee for their virtues, for their 
valor, and for thy protection over them upon the sea and in the 
wilderness, and for the large heritage thou hast given unto them 
and unto us. We thank thee for the glorious hopes which open 
before us ; for civil and religious liberty ; for good government ; 
for wholesome laws ; for our institutions of learning and of relig- 
ion ; for the glorious promises and prospects for the future. May 
this occasion be blessed to the promotion of Christian gratitude, of 
true patriotism, and to the better performance of our duty to one 
another and to thee ; — which we ask in the name of Jesus Christ 
our Lord. Amen." 

A most capital dinner was now partaken of. It was provid- 
ed by John Wriglit in his best style, and gave great satisfac- 
tion to all. 

At the conclusion of the dinner, the President called the 
company to order and addressed them as follows : — 

Gentlemen and Ladies, — The Pilgrim Society- 
having voted to celebrate the anniversary of the em- 
barkation of the Pilgrims from Delft Haven in 1620, 
we are assembled here to pay our tribute to their 
memory, and, by pondering anew on their virtues, to 
go out into the world to perpetuate their principles 
and to hold them up as the only true basis of relig- 
ious and political freedom. It is a great event we 
are commemorating. When that small vessel left 
the Old World, with those few but heroic men and 
women on its deck, then went forth the word that 
founded an empire in this western world ; then did 
speed well the mighty principles of Robinson's 
church, as his followers, casting themselves in per- 
fect faith on God's goodness, sought thus afar from 
home " freedom to worship God." 

I shall not attempt to depict the voyage of the 



33 



Mayflower across the ocean. I leave that to another, 
who I trust will, during the afternoon, carry us, as it 
were, on board the ship, to sympathize in the trials, 
ay, and in the joys, of the small company there as- 
sembled. We stand, gentlemen and ladies, on sacred 
ground, — here in old Plymouth, the first residence of 
our fathers in America. Whose heart does not beat 
with gratitude, as from this spot he looks abroad on 
and over this continent, and recollects that two hun- 
dred and thirty-three years ago the wild Indian held 
all as hunting-ground, and that all this has been con- 
verted into beautiful towns and cities from the forest, 
and made homes for the millions who now reside in 
our land, — made so because John Carver, William 
Bradford, Edward Winslow, Miles Standish, and a 
few others, here planted a colony whose principles, 
declared before they landed, were a foundation as 
sure and solid as the rock on which they would soon 
set their feet ! 

The spot is sacred indeed. We may look out 
and view that island whereon they rested to thank 
God for guidance. We have passed over the rock 
whereon they landed ; it will ever be a hallowed spot. 
We have seen Cole's Hill, where many of the first 
little company lie buried. Many of us daily walk 
lightly over the ashes of the dead. It has seemed to 
me at times as if the wail of the ocean was repri- 
manding us for our forgetfulness. Let these places 
be consecrated by a monument that shall teach gen- 
erations yet unborn that here commenced America 
and liberty, and that the only sure foundations for a 
5 



34 



happy commimity are the immutable principles of 
duty to God and faith in man's capability to do right. 
And we are sitting at the base of Watson's Hill. 
Memorable it is ; for there Massasoit, the chief who 
had till then looked over this whole domain, lord of 
all he surveyed, came to proffer his friendship to the 
white man. 

Just behind us is the spot where Winslow, un- 
daunted, courageous, because true, went up to meet 
the savage chief. What an interview was that ! No 
subsequent negotiations between nations can equal 
it. The destinies of a world were there. The seal 
of the compact was this : " a pair of knives and a 
copper chain with a jewel at it." Then the white 
man and the Indian were friends. The tomahawk 
was buried ; hostilities ceased. 

Winslow and Massasoit on Watson's Hill ! Let 
the picture be familiar to us. Look long and steadily 
upon it. That interview saved the colony in its in- 
fancy, and therefore it has grown into manhood. 
We have crossed the Town Brook, where our fathers 
found good water, and for that reason they concluded 
to settle there. I have heard of a striking incident, 
occurring within a few weeks, respecting that water. 
A stranger came into a store in this town, and asked 
for a phial. When he received it, he could not help 
telling what he wanted it for; and that he might 
tell, he asked the person who gave it to him if he 
knew what he was about to do witli it. The person 
of course did not. The man said he was going to 
fill it with water from that spring, and he should 



35 



take it as a sacred relic five hundred miles from 
here. 

And here, wherein I have been sitting, is the chair 
of that Governor Winslow. It came with him in 
the Mayflower, and has been with his immediate de- 
scendants till now. Who can imagine, as he sat in 
it, what thoughts of the past came to him, of a home 
and friends he had left behind, friends from whom 
he had but lately parted, whom he should never 
meet again on earth; and these thoughts mingled 
wdth hopes and fears of a future, of short or long 
duration, to be passed in a distant and unknown 
land. Methinks he sat there calm in the presence 
and protection of his God, without fear. The waves 
around him might be boisterous, the winds might 
rage and toss the frail bark, but he was sustained by 
faith in Him who said to the winds and waves, " Be 
still." 

But I refrain ; I welcome you to this day, and you, 
gentlemen, who have come up at our invitation, I wel- 
come you in the name of the Pilgrim Society. In be- 
half of the town I welcome you. In your walk to-day 
you have seen the arches which manly enterprise and 
energy have erected for you to pass under, and you 
have everywhere seen how the fair hands of fairer 
woman have decorated the town to give you a gener- 
ous welcome. We have come up from the north, 
the south, the east, and the west, irrespective of 
party, abandoning for the time all political distinc- 
tions, having no peculiar opinions, knowing only 
that we are brethren and sisters of our dear America, 



36 



descendants from a noble ancestry of the good and 
truly great. May the influences of this day go with 
all of us, to give power to our hands and our hearts 
for the right, to build up commonwealths after the 
model of our Pilgrim Fathers. I will close with the 
sentiment, — 

Our Country. Founded on the principles of the 
Pilgrim Fathers, like the rock on which they land- 
ed, it shall stand a beacon to the world. 

Before taking his seat, the President read the following let- 
ter from the Hon. Moses H. Grinnell, which was followed by 
enthusiastic applause : — 

New York, July 28, 1S53. 
My dear Sir : — 

I have been waiting and hoping tbat I could answer your kind 
invitation in the affirmative, but I cannot ; therefore shall have to 
deny myself the very great pleasure I should derive at being pres- 
ent on so interesting an occasion. 

Mr. Draper, with quite a numerous delegation, will join you, 
and I believe the Light Guard are to accompany them. 

I will do my part towards the erection of the monument. I 
hope the right spirit will be manifested, and that a large sum may 
be realized. 

Wishing you a very pleasant time, I am very truly yours, 

Moses H. Grinnell. 

P. S. Can't you find fifty persons who will go a thousand dollars 
each ? I will be one of them. 

The President stated that the sum of $ 6,000 had been sub- 
scribed by the citizens of Plymouth for the erection of a monu- 
ment on the rock on which the Pilgrims landed, which an- 
nouncement was also favorably received. 

The President then gave, as the next toast, — 

The President of the United States. 

Band, " Hail to the Chief ! " 



37 



The President here said : — " And now, gentlemen and 
ladies, I can assure you I have got through with the worst part 
of this day's proceedings. And it now becomes my duty to in- 
troduce you to others. We love Massachusetts, — we love 
every State in the Union. We have visitors from nearly every 
State from Maine to Alabama, who have come up to join with 
us in these festivities. Our honored State is ably represented 
by a Governor who is one of us. I give you as a sentiment, — 

" 3Iassachusetts and the Old Colony^ — The division line 
is obliterated, and Massachusetts has added another honored 
name to the list of Old Colony Governors." 

Governor Clifford of Massachusetts was introduced to the 
assembly, and stood up to respond to the toast, amid loud 
cheers and manifestations of respect. He said : — 

Mr. President, — If I anticipated any thing in 
coming here to-day, it was that upon this spot and on 
this occasion there would be no departure from the 
honored usages of our Pilgrim Fathers. But, sir, to 
contrast my position here with that which the his- 
torical record assigns to the first Governor of Massa- 
chusetts upon a similar occasion, admonishes me that 
we have already begun to widen the diverging lines 
from the point of Plymouth Rock. That record is, 
that in 1632, when Governor Win throp, of Massa- 
chusetts Bay, made his first visit to the Old Colony, 
the Plymouth colonists assembled, and one Mr. 
Roger Williams, a somewhat contentious, but most 
conscientiously contentious personage of that day, 
" propounded a question." Not, I will venture to 
say, one of your congratulatory or complimentary 
toasts, but some good, hard, knotty point of theolo- 
gy, that had an application in it. After he had pro- 



38 



pounded it, as the record goes on to say, the pastor 
briefly spoke to the question. Then Mr. Williams 
prophesied. Then the elders spoke; then the Gov- 
ernor of New Plymouth addressed the meeting. 
After him, several of the gifted among the congrega- 
tion added words of exhortation ; and then, hut not 
till then, the Governor of Massachusetts was requested 
to speak, — which he did. 

The simple habits of our good forefathers did not 
tolerate a corps of reporters on that occasion, and we 
have no record of what the Governor of Massachu- 
setts said. 

That you should have reversed this order, sir, and 
in this presence, — for I have a predecessor here in 
one capacity, and the company will be glad to know 
he is soon to be my successor in another, (turning 
to Mr. Everett,) — that you should have reversed this 
order, and have called first upon me to address this 
glorious assemblage of the sons and daughters, not 
only of the colonies of New Plymouth and Massa- 
chusetts Bay, but of the whole circle of independent 
sovereignties whose shields we see dotting every 
point of this vast pavilion, makes me feel that there 
was one enactment amongst the earliest acts of legis- 
lation of the colonists of New Plymouth that does 
not need to be reenacted now. It was, that " if any 
one, now or hereafter, shall be elected to the office of 
Governor, and doth not stand to the election, and 
hold and execute the office for his year,'' — the Pil- 
grim precedent you see, sir, extended only to a single 
year, — " he should be amerced in twenty pounds 



39 



sterling fine." Sir, when I see those around me 
whose eloquent celebrations of the deeds of the fa- 
thers are as immortal as the deeds themselves, I might 
almost regret that this enactment had not been in 
full force some seven or eight months ago, that I 
might have paid the penalty and been spared the ser- 
vice. 

But, Mr. President, I do not feel quite contented 
to be regarded as standing here to-day simply as a 
guest. Since the union of the two Colonies, in 1692, 
into one Province, my position as its chief magistrate, 
to say nothing of the relation which I hold to the 
Pilgrim Society as one of its Trustees, should rather 
place me here as a host, welcoming others to our fes- 
tivities, instead of being the recipient of any portion 
of the honors of the day. In these relations, if you 
will permit me to give expression to the feeling that 
is uppermost in my breast, I may say with entire 
sincerity, that, if there is any thing in the position 
I happen to hold to make me feel grateful to those 
who have placed me in it, it is the opportunity of 
uttering a word of cordial welcome to those who, 
from the far-off regions of this widely extended coun- 
try, have come up here to unite with us in doing 
honor to our noble ancestry. 

Let me return for an instant to the union of Ply- 
mouth and Massachusetts in 1692. Lord Clarendon 
tells us in his History, that the contumacious Colo- 
nists who compose that ancestry had within fifty 
years of their settlement already " hardened into re- 
publics." After their contumacious republicanism 



40 



had caused the royal mandate to go forth, which va- 
cated the charters of both Colonies, the merry mon- 
arch, Charles II., in 1666, addressed a remarkable 
letter to the Governor and Company of the Colony of 
New Plymouth, in which he says : " Your dutiful be- 
havior, and the manner in which you have conduced 
to the good government of our subjects in those dis- 
tant parts, commend you to our royal regard and 
favor ; and although your carriage doth of itself most 
justly deserve our praise and approbation, yet it 
seems to be set off with the more lustre by the con- 
trary deportment of the Colony of Massachusetts. 
You may therefore assure yourselves that we shall 
never be unmindful of this your loyal and dutiful 
behavior, but shall, on all occasions, take notice of it 
to your advantage ; promising you our constant pro- 
tection and royal favor, in all things that may con- 
cern your safety, peace, and welfare." . And, sir, 
when the " royal favor " was manifested by the Prot- 
estant monarchs, William and Mary, in the granting 
of the new charter, which united us in one happy 
brotherhood, we find in that instrument itself, after 
reciting the acts of their " dearest uncle. King 
Charles II.," that one of the inducing causes of the 
royal pleasure in reorganizing and giving new vital- 
ity to the colonial governments was, " to benefit 
their good subjects of the Colony of New Plymouth." 
Massachusetts has never yet forgotten, and we trust 
never will forget, how much she owes to the Old Col- 
ony, whose independent existence was thus merged 
in her own. 



41 



But, Mr. President, I feel — as I have no doubt 
every one who listens to my voice feels — that it is 
a personal right, as well as privilege, to be here to- 
day, either as host or guest, to participate in a cele- 
bration in honor of the memory of the Pilgrim Fa- 
thers. I come, sir, from a good Old Colony stock, 
through both lines of descent. My immediate an- 
cestors, impelled by very proper motives, like the 
great founder of my native State, it is true, emigrated 
from the Old Colony. And, I may say, if they were 
to leave the Old Colony for any other portion of the 
world, they could not do better than follow the exam- 
ple of Roger Williams himself, and trust themselves 
to the kindness of the Narragansetts. But if I was 
thus subjected to the simple contingency of being 
born out of its jurisdiction, I certainly have mani- 
fested my love for it, and my loyalty to it, by coming 
back to the Old Colony as soon as I arrived at years 
of discretion, and uniting my fortunes for this world 
and for ever with a scion of the unimpeachable, good 
Old Colony stock, — a lineal descendant of stout old 
Miles Standish himself; whom, it has been said by 
some malicious scandal-mongers among historians, 
our fathers, at certain periods of their history, would 
have been very well content to have got rid of, but 
that they could not get on without him. They need- 
ed the arm of the church militant on certain interest- 
ing occasions, and they found it nerved to its utmost 
tension in the honored ancestor of my children. Cap- 
tain Miles Standish. [Here the speaker was inter- 
rupted by the Rev. Dr. Adams, of New York, with 
6 



42 



the remark, " And of my children too." ] I am proud, 
sir, [addressing Dr. Adams,] to claim you as a cou- 
sin, and by so near a remove. 

But, after all, Mr. President, we none of us need 
these personal, much less these official relations to 
the Old Colony, to give us a deep and heartfelt inter- 
est in the celebration of this day, — the anniversary 
of the embarkation on their perilous voyage to New 
England of that little band of persecuted Christians, 
who, in Old England, their tender love for which 
never abated in their hearts, had been driven from 
prison to prison, who had seen six of their number 
executed for their fidelity to their religious faith, and 
who at last escaped, through many perils, from the 
fens of Lincolnshire, and sought, not a home, not a 
refuge, not a place of repose, but a spot of safety for 
the hour, among the dissenters in Holland. Thence, 
after a sojourn of ten or twelve years, they ventured 
forth, in that " leaky, crazy bark " which you say, 
sir, " sped so well," but which, you will pardon me 
for reminding you, only succeeded in reaching the 
coast of England, where her passengers were trans- 
ferred to that other honored craft, which so bravely 
pursued its fatiguing way across the ocean, and 
which, having landed here its precious freight, still 
" kept the sea," and subsequently made nine voyages 
from Plymouth Harbor and Massachusetts Bay to 
Old England and back. • That immortal ship can no 
more be forgotten, than the little flower from which 
it took its name can cease to blossom from year to 
year, on our hill-sides and in our forests, to remind 



43 



generation after generation, as they breathe its fra- 
grance, that it was the Mayflower which once bore 
within its wooden walls the destinies of this mighty 
empire. 

Mr. President, a modern English author has said 
for us, in a few quaint but vigorous Saxon sentences, 
all that we need, to tell the story of to-day. With 
the single anachronism, that he has carried the May- 
flower to Delft Haven, instead of taking her, as the 
Pilgrims did, at Southampton, he has drawn for us a 
true and striking picture. In a spirit as reverent to- 
wards our fathers as it is laudatory of us as a nation, 
he says : — 

" Hail to thee, poor little ship Mayflower, of Delft 
Haven, — poor, common-looking ship, hired by com- 
mon charter-party, for coined dollars, — calked with 
mere oakum and tar, — provisioned with vulgarest 
biscuit and bacon. Yet what ship Argo, or miracu- 
lous Epic ship, built by the sea-gods, was other than 
a foolish bum-barge in comparison. Golden fleeces 
or the like these sailed for ; thou, little Mayflower, 
hadst in thee a veritable Promethean spark, — the 
life-spark of the largest nation on our earth, — so we 
may already name the Transatlantic Saxon nation. 
Honor to the brave and true ! They verily, we say, 
carry fire from heaven, and have a power that them- 
selves dream not of. Let all men honor Puritanism, 
since God has so honored it." 

Does not this tell the whole story of this day's 
commemoration 1 That spark, then kindled, is still 
burning, and is destined to no extinguishment, while 
the ages roll on. 



44 • 

Let us for a moment glance at some of the striking 
contrasts of that day of the embarkation and this of 
its commemoration. And first, does it not almost re- 
proach you, sir, that we, the stalwart sons of such 
sires, are here to celebrate their memories under this 
benignant summer sky, when they came here amidst 
the frosts of winter ; and when, instead of the bright 
sunlight pouring down to cheer and illuminate their 
new-found home, " the snow was falling around 
them, while their dying fell as fast " 1 

Another contrast is exhibited between the barks 
in which they trusted themselves to the perils of the 
sea, — the "Speedwell," or the "Mayflower," — and 
one of those magnificent floating palaces of our day, 
— the " Sovereign of the Seas," the " Skylark," or 
by whatever other ambitious names these triumphs 
of our naval architecture are called ; and still another, 
between that weary four months' passage of the May- 
flower and the nine days' wonder of our ocean steam- 
ers, which month after month is repeated, carrying 
us back to the land of our fathers, and returning us 
to our homes, almost before our neighbors have 
missed us from our accustomed haunts. 

Ay, ^Ir. President, other contrasts press upon me, 
— one suggested at the moment by the welcome pres- 
ence of the distinguished Senator on your left. The 
assembling of that convention, for three hours, in the 
cabin of the Mayflower, and the glorious constitution 
which it had prepared in that brief space, for adop- 
tion or rejection by the whole race of man, in all 
coining time, and that other Convention, with its 



45 



probable product, for our adoption or rejection, 
whose three months' session in the Capitol is depriv- 
ing us of the presence of many whose faces we hoped 
to see, and whose voices we hoped to hear on this 
occasion; and from which I congratulate you, Mr. 
Senator, [turning to Hon. Mr. Sumner,] that you 
have been fortunate enough to emerge to-day. I be- 
lieve that first constitution, which was signed in the 
cabin of the Mayflower, is the only one extant with 
which no subsequent generation has ever found fault. 
Most happy shall we be, if the Old Colony shall find 
such perfect justice meted out to her by the labors of 
our modern Solons, as our fathers stamped upon that 
instrument, for all who were to be governed by its 
provisions. We shall have no cause of complaint, if 
they furnish us with a constitution as wise and as 
just as that which was framed by our wise and just 
ancestors, two hundred and thirty-three years ago. 

But let us look at one congratulatory contrast. 
Sir, I love to speak, as her chief magistrate, of what 
Massachusetts has done, and is doing, in the glorious 
cause of popular education, — of her schools, her col- 
leges, and all the appliances and means that she has 
devised to carry out that leading idea of the fathers, 
that "knowledge, with virtue, must be the saving 
grace of this people " ; and when I reflect that she 
has now accumulated in her treasury an amount 
which the Pilgrims, in their wildest dreams, could 
never have imagined, devoted to the cause of educa- 
tion, — that her school fund exceeds a million of 
dollars, and is still increasing, — and when I contrast 



46 



this with the first school fund of the Plymouth Col- 
ony, which, as the records tell us, was a contribution 
of the herring fishery of Cape Cod, appropriated to 
the support of the first free school in the Colony, I 
thank God that Massachusetts has at least been true 
to one of the " conditions of her existence." 

I might multiply these contrasts, but I forbear. 
There is one, however, which I will venture to sug- 
gest, that this occasion, with all the ennobling associ- 
ations and influences it has brought to our hearts, 
may not, so far as I have any agency in its proper 
observance, pass away as a merely pleasant pageant. 

I would not have it so. I would have the sons 
and daughters of the Pilgrims, when they meet to do 
homage to their memories, catch something of their 
noble and self-sacrificing spirit, and bear forth from a 
scene and service like this some good seed, that by 
and by their children may return to this consecrated 
Rock, " bringing their sheaves with them." 

Sir, if there is a contrast which the history of the 
Pilgrims and the apparent tendency of the popular 
sentiment of our own time suggest as more striking 
than all others, it is in the prevailing ideas of a 
nation's progress which were entertained by our fa- 
thers, and those which are now sought to be incul- 
cated amongst us. 

What, sir, was the Pilgrim's idea of a nation's prog- 
ress and a nation's glory ■? He was content to labor 
and to sufi"er, to " build better than he knew," look- 
ing forward to no reward but that which came from 
the approving smile of the great Task-master himself 



47 



He was content to do the duty that lay nearest to 
him, and to leave events with God. He was con- 
tent — ay, and with him those noble women — God 
bless their memories ! — who could stand by the 
couch of the dying, and close the eyes of the dead, 
when the famishing wolf was howling at their door, 
and while their sick and suffering babes were clamor- 
ing for the life which they alone could give, — they 
were content, even then, in humble confidence and 
trust, to leave their destiny to Him in whose hands 
are the destinies of nations and of men. They asked 
for no manifestations. They fostered no self-suffi- 
cient, presumptuous pride, in the idea that it was the 
" manifest destiny " of the Colony of New Plymouth, 
the tree that they had planted and watered with so 
many tears, to grow into an empire, until its branches 
overshadowed a continent. 

But what is the "manifest destiny" doctrine of our 
day, with which we are constantly stimulating our 
national arrogance and self-conceit 1 Is it, Mr. Pres- 
ident, and sons and daughters of the Old Colony, of 
the true Pilgrim stamp, and will it bear the test of 
their Christian chemistry ] I believe the most recent 
and authoritative exposition of it is, — almost forget- 
ting that there is a God who ruleth among the na- 
tions of the earth, — that it is the " manifest destiny " 
of this country of ours, and one of the inexorable 
conditions of its existence, to "march, march, march!" 
in the path of Pagan Rome, as restless as the eternal 
tramp of the Wandering Jew, which is taken for its 
emblem, through fields of battle and of blood, till its 



48 



mission is accomplished. Mr. President, who relishes 
this foredoomed and predestined tramping for a na- 
tion like this ? AVho is not rather content to see his 
country cultivating the glorious arts of peace, a rev- 
erence for God, a respect for law, and an observance 
of that great principle of justice towards others, which 
the late John Q. Adams declared was the highest 
honor of our Pilgrim Fathers. " They were the first 
European colonists," he says, " m^io observed the 
natural rights of the Indian occupant to the soil on 
which he lived, — that every acre of territory they 
acquired," — whether the consideration was "a pair 
of jack-knives and a copper chain with a jewel in it," 
to which you, sir, have alluded, or whatever else was 
the equivalent, — " every acre and inch of their terri- 
tory was obtained by a fair compact with those who 
held the soil." The most eminent writer on public 
law of modern times, the celebrated Vattel, has done 
merited honor to the colonists of New Plymouth and 
Massachusetts Bay, w^hen he says, that " they were 
the first to establish this preceptive rule of natural 
justice and national right." 

Sir, are we content to abide by the example of our 
fathers in this respect, or do we desire to go on and 
make it one of the conditions of our national exist- 
ence, that we should march^ march, MARCH ! No, 
sir ; the Pilgrims had a better motto and watchword 
than that, under which to advance and conquer ; they 
saw, with an undimmed eye, in the clear sky above 
them, more distinct than the fabled cross of Constan- 
tine, God's great admonition to all the dwellers on 



49 



the earth, " Work, work, WORK," — ''Prat/, prat, 
PRAY " ; and as they were faithful to the heavenly 
vision, the great inarch still went on, as it will con- 
tinue to go on, if we are faithful also. Industry, 
piety, and frugality, with an unwavering trust in God, 
they were content to follow, as the unerring guides to 
national prosperity and honor. 

Mr. President, my fellow-countrymen, sons and 
daughters of New England, which do you choose"? 
Which will you carry from this scene of joyous fes- 
tivity and pious commemoration, as your guide in the 
coming days \ That the onward march of the coun- 
try you love, and in which your children are to live, 
shall be symbolized by the Wandering Jew, or by the 
Christian Pilgrim % 

I anticipate your response, here and everywhere, 
where there is a drop of the Pilgrim blood still warm- 
ing the heart or suflusing the countenance of a son 
or daughter of the good old Pilgrim stock. And I 
ask you to unite with me in the wish I shall utter as 
a sentiment for this day and hour : — 

The Sons and Daughters of New England, — May 
their contributions to the true glory of the republic 
be ever exhibited in an unwavering fidelity to those 
principles of their Pilgrim Fathers that were founded 
upon THE Rock. 

The President. — " Our Pilgrim Fathers landed here, but 
first they landed somewhere else on this continent ; and we 
cannot meet at the festive board, or anywhere else, without 
remembering that cape which stretches away far into the sea. 
That soulless Constitutional Convention, which has been alluded 

7 



50 



to on the present occasion, lias deprived us of some gentlemen 
who were expected to speak here to-day. I call it a " soulless " 
Convention, without meaning any disrespect to that body. I 
think if they had the soul of Massachusetts in them, they 
would have adjourned this day, and let their members come 
down here. But one half of the crew of the 3Ia^floiver died 
within the first six months, and still the Pilgrim Fathers got 
on ; and we can get along too, notwithstanding the Conven- 
tion. .We are deprived of the gentleman who was to answer 
the toast I am now to read ; but Cape Cod has more than one 
to speak for her. I give you : — 

"jT/ic Cajje Cod Assoeiation, — PljTuouth in 1644 gave one 
Prhice to Cape Cod ; Cape Cod has to-day sent us many 
Princes in return." 

This was responded to by 11. A. Sci'DDER, Esq., of the 
Cape Cod Association : — • 

I rise somewhat reluctantly, Mr. President, to 
respond to the sentiment which you have proposed, 
in the absence of others to whom the duties and the 
honors of this office more properly belong. Nor 
should I venture, for one moment, sir, to trespass 
upon the forbearance of this assembly, except in 
obedience to your command. Not that the place, or 
the occasion, is without interest ; not that my soul, 
untouched by sympathy, has power to withstand 
the inspiration of this hour ; but from fear that the 
lips might fail to give proper utterance to the real 
sentiments of the heart. For who can suppress 
those emotions which naturally arise in the midst of 
so many and such associations as cluster around this 
consecrated spot. 

Why, sir, here is Ph-mouth Eock, and there is old 



61 



Cape Cod, — there, too, is Cape Cod Harbor. What 
places 80 memorable among the records of the past "? 
What names more sacred to the cause of human 
progress, in ancient or in modem times, in the Old 
World or in the New '? Is not this the very scene 
where dawned the earliest light of New England 
history] Was. not this the theatre of those moral 
and political events which have made New England 
classic ground ? Around us are those waters which 
bore upon their bosom the Mayflower and her 
company. Before us lies the very haven which first 
embraced that Pilgrim ship. Beneath us is the very 
soil which first received the impress of those Pilgrim 
feet. Those very principles, which at present form 
the basis of our great American republic, which 
quicken and adorn her noblest institutions, were 
they not cradled in yonder cabin of the Mayflower ? 
were they not rocked upon those very billows which 
even now are rolling before our eyes, and are hum- 
ming their deep-toned lullaby along these shores "? 

Truly this is a place for sacred thought and pious 
meditation. Well may the dweller upon these shores 
feel that the soil whereon he rests is hallowed 
ground. Well may the wandering child, revisiting 
these shores, feel a spirit of holy veneration mingling 
with his afl'ections for his native land. Well may 
the Christian traveller turn aside from his journeying, 
and pause awhile to kneel in grateful adoration upon 
the shores of Plymouth and Cape Cod. Well may 
the patriot and philosopher direct their footsteps 
hitherward, to gaze upon these shores, to call to 



52 



mind their early history, and here to indnlge in 
emotions scarcely less sacred than those produced 
npon the pious pilgrim's heart even at the sight of 
his beloved Jerusalem ! 

Prompted by sentiments of love and veneration for 
the past, deeming the place and the occasion appro- 
priate, the citizens of the various towns within the 
limits of the Old Colony of Plymouth have gathered 
here to-day to celebrate the anniversary of the em- 
barkation of the Pilgrims at Delft Haven. The 
scenes and the ceremonies of that day have else- 
where been depicted in language beautiful and 
touching. That was indeed a day of sad remem- 
brances, of fearful misgivings, and of sorrowful fore- 
bodings. What tears, what prayers, what yearnings 
of the heart were there ! With what fear and trem- 
bling did they bid adieu to the endearments of the 
past, and trust themselves to the untried perils of the 
future. The destinies of that hour no one could 
foresee ; they were known only to the mind and in 
the counsels of that Omniscient One, on whom alone 
our fathers cast themselves for guidance and protec- 
tion. Was ever a day so dark, and yet so eventful 
as that, — wherein the hand of Omnipotence is now 
so visibly revealed ? Was ever an adventure so hope- 
less in its beginning, — in whose results the special 
counsels of the Almighty are now so plainly mani- 
fested ? 

Although I have not the honor, Mr. President, to 
be enrolled among the members of the Pilgrim 
Society, under whose auspices and at whose invita- 



53 



tion we are this day assembled, yet it is my privilege 
to claim a membership among those of another, a 
sister association, and thus to feel a common sympa- 
thy in every thing pertaining to this occasion. It is 
a pleasing spectacle to behold, not only individuals, 
but communities and kindred associations, coming 
up hither, and here uniting as children of one com- 
mon family, to offer their tribute of affection at one 
common shrine. It is proper, and it is becoming, 
that on such an occasion our hearts, " like kindred 
drops, should mingle into one." From the sentiment 
which you have had the kindness to propose, from 
the language in which that sentiment was couched, 
I know, sir, how willingly you will permit those of 
us who trace our origin to the various sections of 
this favored land, not only to participate with you, 
but even to claim our portion, in the honors and in 
the ceremonies of this day. 

The entire territory of the Old Colony of Ply- 
mouth is to the heart of the patriot and the Christian 
consecrated ground. There is not a single spot 
within her ancient borders, from Plymouth Rock to 
Cape Cod Harbor, which does not abound in hal- 
lowed associations. It seems, indeed, almost indis- 
pensable, in forming a proper conception of the 
labors and the trials of our fathers, from the day of 
their embarkation at Delft Haven up to the time of 
their arrival on this side of the Atlantic, and during 
the period of their colonial existence, that one 
should have travelled throughout the length and 
breadth of their primitive domain, especially that he 



54 



should have visited the shores of Cape Cod, and 
have looked upon her dreary coast, in the dreary 
season of November. 

Feeble and imperfect, at the best, are all our con- 
ceptions of the hardships and adversities encountered 
by our ancestors. We always find it difficult to re- 
produce the past. So gradual and so imperceptible 
is the work, which is continually going on around 
us, that our recollections become merged in the reali- 
ties of the present, and we unconsciously lose sight 
of the change which has been effected. Even Nature 
herself is oftentimes so modified and improved by art, 
that we forget that she was not always so adorned in 
loveliness and beauty. Such, however, — fortunately 
for our purpose, — such is not universally the case. 
Many of those who are present here to-day will not 
soon forget the impressions produced, and the senti- 
ments awakened, during a recent visit of that Asso- 
ciation to which you have referred, to the sandy shores 
of Provincetown, — that earliest landing-place of the 
Pilgrims in America; a place so closely connected 
in history with the scenes we this day celebrate, that 
I trust a passing allusion, even at this time, may not 
be deemed inappropriate. There nature seems to 
have retained the features of her primeval state. 
No art of husbandry, with all its genial influences, 
can ever efi'ace the general desolation which there 
prevails. In her naked sterility she remains, as she 
seems to have remained for ages, apparently without 
variation or even the shadow of change. Upon 
her parched and barren surface appear no signs of 



55 



healthy vegetation. AVithin her veins the quickening 
pulse of life seems never to have beaten. Her bleak 
and dreary sand-peaks lift their heads along that 
coast, doubtless the same this hour as on that mem- 
orable day when first our fathers sought and found a 
shelter within their cheerless embrace. 

Surrounded by such impressive mementos of the 
past, and aided by the associations which they sug- 
gest, our minds were naturally carried back to that 
ancient period. We dwelt anew upon its history. 
We called around us the events and the circumstan- 
ces of that day, comparing its hardships and its ad- 
versities with the blessings and advantages of the 
present moment. As our gallant steamer went glid- 
ing through those waters, as I gazed upon her banners 
streaming in the breeze, and listened to the sound of 
music on her decks, as I mingled in those circles of 
gayety and mirth, and participated in the pleasures 
of that joyous company, whose hearts were overflow- 
ing with plenty and good cheer, I could not help 
contrasting the pageantry and the beauty of that 
scene with one which happened two centuries before, 
when around that selfsame point, and through those 
very waters, shattered and disabled, wrestling and 
struggling with the elements, came that Pilgrim 
bark, with her little company of fugitives on board. 
O, sir, thought I, how widely ^d how sadly dif- 
ferent was it then, with those wandering exiles, 
whose streaming banner was but the signal of dis- 
tress, whose music was but the whistling wind, 
and the tempest howling above them and about 



56 



them, and whose hearts, though " stout and brave," 
must yet like " muffled drums " have beaten, as tliey 
drew near that solitary coast, and met no kindly 
welcoming on shore! 

As often as I have visited that spot, I have never 
failed to climb those overhanging cliffs, and look out 
upon that heaving ocean, and there, sir, more than 
once, have I endeavored to call around me the scenes 
and the associations of that period so eventful in the 
history of mankind. Far out upon that trackless 
waste have I stretched my eyes, as if, by the aid of 
imagination, I might, perchance, behold that tem- 
pest-stricken vessel, tossing and plunging along, and 
smelling her way through those dark waters in 
search of a promised land. But I know how difficult 
it is to reproduce such scenes, and how dangerous the 
attempt to portray the same by the ordinary arts of 
speech. In truth, all efforts to depict the heroism 
and the suffering of those days must prove imperfect 
and unavailing. A portion of that drama, the moral 
tragedy which it presented, we can never fully com- 
prehend. Gratifying, indeed, might it be to us, 
while this day visiting the sepulchres of our fathers, 
if, having the power, we dared to invade the sacred 
silence of the tomb, and call forth its sheeted tenants 
into life. If we could look upon those patriarchs of 
New England, — i£we could witness their deeds, and 
listen to their counsels, — if we could take those vet- 
erans by the hand, and hold communion with them, 
face to face, — then, to some extent, might we learn 
the depth of purpose, the unfaltering will, the daunt- 



57 



less courage, and the undying faith, which strength- 
ened and sustained them. 

Could we but take along with us those venerable 
fathers of the first New England generation, to be- 
come our guests on this occasion, to them, indeed, it 
would prove a feast of miracles. If with them w^e 
could ascend those Pisgah heights where once they 
doubtless stood and viewed the wilderness around 
them ; — if with us they could thence look down 
upon that " city in the sand," with its glittering 
spires and beautiful abodes, its winding streets and 
sea-girt borders, all teeming with industry and 
thrift ; — if they could look down upon that lit- 
tle harbor, once so desolate and drear, but now so 
full of life, with its flying pennants and its flutter- 
ing wings of commerce ; — if once more they could 
look out upon that wintry waste which has since 
become the highway of the nations, and there be- 
hold those pilots and policemen of the ocean, stretch- 
ing along the coast, to guide the uncertain traveller 
over the deep, or to guard those floating palaces and 
vehicles of commerce which are continually passing 
to and fro, from continent to continent ; — if with us, 
sir, they could embark on board one of our noble 
steamers, to glide along those shores where once 
they wandered in their crazy shallop, — and there, 
instead of barren wilds, haunted by savage men, 
could they behold those thriving border towns, to- 
gether with those little fleets of fishermen which 
cluster like clouds about the headlands ; — if, with 
the declining sun, they could behold those beacon- 
8 



58 



lights which rise upon those headlands and gleam 
by night upon the bosom of those waters ; — if they 
could behold all this, and even more than I have 
power to describe, how might it cheer the aged Pil- 
grim's heart, and how like good old Simeon might 
he exclaim, " Now let thy servant depart in peace, 
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." 

Nay, sir, — but we would not let them thus de- 
part. They should go along with us to that great 
metropolis of New England. Arm in arm with those 
stern old Pilgrims would we wander about the " city 
of the Pilgrims." They should behold her shipping 
skirting her borders as with a leafless forest ; — they 
should behold her wharves and her warehouses 
groaning with abundance ; — they should look upon 
her granite blocks and her magnificent abodes, upon 
her churches and her temples ; — they should be- 
come acquainted with her moral, her social, and her 
religious institutions, with the industry, enterprise, 
and intelligence of her citizens ; — and then should 
they be told that all this is but the legitimate result 
of those examples which they set, and the lessons 
which they taught. 

O, sir, if, mounting the iron steed of this nine- 
teenth century, they could travel throughout the 
different portions of New England, along her cit- 
ies and her seaports, upon her lakes and rivers, 
over her mountains and through her beautiful val- 
leys ; — if they could behold her six republics, built 
upon those solid foundations which were hewn out 
and planted by their hands ; — if, leaving these 



59 



abodes, they could take their way across this mighty 
continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific shores, 
visiting in turn those thirty-one republics, great 
compeers and copartners in the cause of freedom, 
finding everywhere among their leading citizens 
the children of New England, wearing, not only the 
habits, the customs, and the principles, but even 
the surnames, of the Pilgrim and the Puritan ; — if, 
lastly, they could enter the great capital of our na- 
tion, and there behold her noblest institutions based 
upon the principles of that compact originally signed 
by them in the cabin of the Mayflower, in the har- 
bor of Cape Cod ; — would they not hold up their 
hands in wonder and amazement, — and might they 
not with propriety exclaim, 

" Quis jam locus, 

Quae regio in terris, nostri non plena laboris ? " 

How naturally the heart regrets, that, according 
to the lot of man, they could not have survived to 
witness the triumphant progress of their cause, and 
taste the abundant fruits of their endeavors. They 
were not able to look into the seeds of time, and thus 
predict the destinies of the future, — glorious as they 
Avere yet to be, through their humble ministrations. 
They could not, therefore, with a prophet's eye fore- 
see, nor with the voice of prophecy could they fore- 
tell, that, in the fulness of time, " every knee should 
bow, and every tongue confess," before the shrine 
which they had here erected. No, sir, in the mys- 
terious providence of God, it was ordained that they 



60 



should live and toil and suffer and die, even as 
they did, without a single glimpse, or even a con- 
ception, of the results which awaited their posterity. 
What may be the final destiny of those institutions 
which our fathers came hither to establish, even we 
ourselves are unable to predict. What we have al- 
ready seen, that we know ; farther than this be- 
longs to the uncertain future. We trust, indeed, 
that the whole earth is yet to be the temple of uni- 
versal freedom, and that all mankind shall become 
devoted worshippers therein. 

Those earliest pioneers, who planted the standard 
of humanity upon these shores, are gone to their 
silent graves. Carver and Bradford and Winslow 
and Brewster, — Pilgrim and Puritan, — all lie sleep- 
ing in their narrow beds. But their memories, with 
their principles, survive. Upon the wings of immor- 
tality shall they be borne to the latest generations of 
mankind. What a lesson have those devoted men 
left behind them for human contemplation ! By it 
we are taught, that in the exercise of the severer 
virtues lies the only proper source of glory and re- 
nown. We are taught that life is but a passing 
shadow, — that man is mortal, and destined to de- 
cay, but that principles are eternal and imperishable. 
The works of man, sir, may crumble into dust, — 
generations may vanish, their theories and their sys- 
tems may come to naught, — but the truths which 
they embody shall endure for ever. 

Before the sacred altar of the past we kneel to-day 
in reverence, to commemorate the virtues of those 



61 



honored sires, and to perpetuate the memory of their 
deeds. Mr. President, it is not only fit and proper, 
but it is good for us, to have been gathered, in such 
a cause, upon this hallowed spot. Our visit to this 
place — the earliest dwelling-place of the Pilgrims — 
cannot pass without its effect upon the mind. Aside 
from those pious duties which, as children, we have 
thus discharged, there is an influence in this occa- 
sion which reacts upon the heart. As the Christian 
traveller, in his Oriental journey, visits the scenes 
where once occurred those miracles and events so 
memorable in sacred history, and there indulges in 
the associations of the past, until by faith he almost 
seems to walk with Abraham and Moses, and to hold 
communion with the prophets and the apostles of 
later days, — listening to their precepts, and drink- 
ing still deeper from the fountains of religious truth, 
— so with the patriotic descendant of the Pilgrim 
and the Puritan, as he wanders about these conse- 
crated grounds, and surveys those places so renowned 
in the history of our land, he feels a spirit of holy 
veneration rising up within him; and while he is 
stepping in the very footprints of those ancient men, 
he seems also to behold their venerable faces, and to 
hear their voices speaking to him out of the past, — 
and he is thus more deeply impressed by those les- 
sons of political and religious wisdom which they 
taught. 

Permit me, sir, in concluding these remarks, to 
offer the following sentiment : — < 

The Children of the Old Colony of Plymouth. Faith- 



62 



fill in their attachments to their native land. — Like 
old Antseus, they gain new strength at every con- 
tact with their mother earth. 

The President prefaced the next sentiment as follows : — 
" Now that Massachusetts has spoken, and Cape Cod has spok- 
en, I have to introduce to you one, who, it may be said, is the 
founder of this celebration ; a gentleman who has filled stations 
of honor in our country, and who has always honored the sta- 
tions he occupied. I need say no more, for the heart knows 
whom I mean. I will simply announce the sentiment : — 

'■'■The MnbarJcation of 1620, — and its results.^' 

Mr. Everett arose, and was greeted with the most enthu- 
siastic cheering. 

You have been good enough, Mr. President, to in- 
timate that, among our numerous honored guests, (to 
whom your complimentary remarks, with possibly a 
single exception, might have applied with as much 
justice as to myself,) I am the individual to Avhom you 
look, to respond to the toast that has just been an- 
nounced. I rise to obey the call. It is true that 
there is a single circumstance for which it is possible 
that the allusion may be more exclusively applica- 
ble to me than to any other gentleman present. It 
is most true, that, on one pleasant occasion on which 
I have been at this delightful and beloved Plymouth, 
I suggested that it might be expedient, not always, 
but occasionally, to transfer the celebration of the 
great day from the winter to the summer season. 
Supposing that to be the allusion which you had in 
your mind, I feel that I may without impropriety 
obey your call by rising to respond to the toast that 
has just been given. 



63 



It is now hard upon thirty years since I had the 
honor, on the 22d of December, to address the sons 
and daughters of the Pilgrims, assembled at this 
place. I deemed it a peculiar privilege and honor. 
I deem it, sir, a still greater privilege to find myself 
here on this joyous occasion, and to be permitted to 
participate in this happy festival, where we have an 
attendance of so many distinguished friends and fel- 
low-citizens from distant parts of the Union, — from 
almost every State in the Union, sir, you have al- 
ready told us ; where we are favored with the com- 
pany of the representatives of the New England So- 
ciety of New York, one of those institutions which 
are carrying the name and principles of the Pilgrims 
to the farthest ends of the land ; where we are grat- 
ified with the presence of our military friends from 
the same city, the great commercial emporium of the 
United States ; where we are honored by so much of 
the gravity, the dignity, and the character of the com- 
munity, and are favored with the presence of so 
much of its beauty, grace, and loveliness. 

I do indeed, sir, feel it to be a privilege to be here 
under these circumstances, and 1 deem myself most 
highly honored in being called upon to respond to 
the toast which you have just announced, in com- 
memoration of the embarkation of the Pilgrims, and 
its results. The theme is vast ; I shrink from it ; I 
know not where to begin, or where to end. It seems 
to me, sir, that you yourself, in the remarks with 
which you have favored the company, struck the key- 
note of this great theme, in alluding to the state of 



64 



this vast continent before the Pilgrims came, and to 
the situation of its primitive inhabitants. There is 
the beginning. I could not but feel it, as I saw 
one or two of them, poor wanderers, as we came into 
Plymouth, seated by the road-side, wondering spec- 
tators of the pageant which was passing before their 
eyes. 

A few days ago, as I saw in the newspapers, two 
light birch-bark canoes appeared in Boston Harbor, 
containing each a solitary Indian. They seemed, as 
they approached, to gaze in silent wonder at the city 
of the triple hills, rising street above street, and 
crowned with the dome of the State-House, and at 
the long line of villas stretching far into the back- 
ground ; — at the numerous small vessels outward 
bound, as they dropped down the channel and spread 
their broad wings to the breeze, and those which were 
returning weather-beaten from the ends of the earth ; 
— at the steamers, dashing in every direction across 
the harbor, breathing volumes of smoke from their 
fiery lungs. They paddled their frail barks with dex- 
terity and speed through this strange, busy, and to 
them, no doubt, bewildering scene ; and having made 
the circuit of East Boston, the Navy Yard, the city 
itself, and South Boston, dropped down with the cur- 
rent, and disappeared among the Islands. 

There was not a human being of kindred blood to 
utter a word of welcome to them, in all the region 
which on the day we now commemorate was occupied 
by their forefathers in Massachusetts. The race is 
gone. It would be a mistaken sentimentality to re- 



65 



gret the change ; to regret that some thousand un- 
cultured barbarians, destitute of all the improvements 
of social life, as we understand it, and seemingly in- 
capable of adopting them, should have yielded grad- 
ually to the civilized millions who have taken their 
place. But we must, both as men and as Christians, 
condemn whatever of oppression and wrong has 
marked the change, (as is too apt always to be the 
case when strong and weak are brought into contact 
with each other,) and without affectation we may in- 
dulge a heartfelt sympathy for the feeble and stricken 
relics of once powerful and formidable tribes of fel- 
low-men. 

On the 1st of August, 1620, the circumstances of 
the two races, as far as this part of America is con- 
cerned, presented very nearly the reverse of the pic- 
ture we have just contemplated. On that day, the 
territory now forming the States of New England was 
occupied by numerous Indian tribes, some of which 
were strong and warlike. They were far behind the 
natives of Mexico and Peru, but they had added some 
simple agriculture to their hunting and fishing, — 
their moccasons, and snow-shoes, and stone hatchets, 
and arrow-heads, and wampum-belts, evinced their 
aptitude for the humble arts of savage life ; they re- 
tained unimpaired their native independence, igno- 
rant of the metaphysical claims to sovereignty which 
powerful governments three thousand miles off 
founded upon the right of discovery ; and neither the 
arts, nor the arms, nor the diseases, nor the vices of 
civilized life, had commenced that terrible warfare 
9 



66 



against them, which has since been pushed nearly 
to their extermination. 

On that day, and in this condition of the American 
races, a handful of careworn, twice-doomed English 
exiles set sail from Delft Haven, in Holland, with 
the intention, after being joined by a few brethren of 
the faith in England, to encounter the then much- 
dreaded perils of the Atlantic, and the still more for- 
midable uncertainties of their projected settlement on 
the outer edge of the New World. Two centuries 
and a third have passed, the momentous ages of 
national infancy, childhood, and youth have been 
rapidly lived through, and six prosperous republics, 
parents of a still increasing family of States in the 
boundless West, have grown up in the wilderness. 
In the mean time, in this part of the continent, the 
native inhabitants have sunk far below the point of 
comparative weakness, down to the verge of annihi- 
lation ; and we have assembled now and here to cele- 
brate the day on which this all-important change 
commenced. 

I allude, Mr. President, to this revolution in the 
condition of this continent, and the races that occupy 
it, not as introducing a narrative of familiar incidents 
or a train of commonplace reflections, but as point- 
ing directly to the great problem which first present- 
ed itself on the discovery of America, and the agency 
of the Pilgrim Fathers in its solution, — an agency 
whose first public manifestation might be said to 
commence with the ever-memorable embarkation at 
Delft Haven, to which I have just referred. 



67 



The discovery itself of the American continent may, 
I think, fairly be considered the most extraordinary 
event in the history of the world. In this, as in 
other cases, familiarity blunts the edge of our percep- 
tions; but much as I have meditated, and often as I 
have treated this theme, its magnitude grows upon 
me with each successive contemplation. That a con- 
tinent nearly as large as Europe and Africa united, 
spread out on both sides of the equator, lying be- 
tween the western shores of Europe and Africa and 
the eastern shore of Asia, with groups of islands in 
either ocean, as it were stopping-places on the march 
of discovery, — a continent not inhabited indeed by 
civilized races, but still occupied by one of the families 
of rational man, — that this great hemisphere, I say, 
should have lain undiscovered for five thousand years 
upon the bosom of the deep, — a mystery so vast, 
within so short a distance, and yet not found out, — is 
indeed a marvel. Mute nature, if I may so express 
myself, had made the discovery to the philosopher, 
for the preponderance of land in the eastern hemi- 
sphere demanded a counterpoise in the west. Dark- 
wooded trees, unknown to the European naturalist, 
had from age to age drifted over the sea and told of 
the tropical forests where they grew. Stupendous 
ocean currents, driven westward by the ever-breath- 
ing trade-winds, had wheeled their mighty flexures 
along the American coast, and returned to Europe 
with tidings of the everlasting breakwater which had 
stopped their way. But the fulness of time had not 
yet come. Egypt and Assyria, and Tyre and Car- 



68 



thage, and Greece and Rome must flourish and fall, 
before the seals are broken. They must show what 
they can do for humanity before the veil which hides 
its last hope is lifted up. The ancient civilization 
must be weighed in a balance and found wanting. 
Yes, and more. Nature must unlock her rarest mys- 
teries ; the quivering steel must learn to tremble to the 
pole; the astrolabe must climb the arch of heaven, 
and bring down the sun to the horizon ; science 
must demonstrate the sphericity of the earth, which 
the ancients suspected, but could not prove ; the press 
must scatter the flying rear of mediaeval darkness ; 
the creative instincts of a new political, intellectual, 
and social life must begin to kindle into action ; and 
then the Discoverer may go forth. 

He does go forth. The, discovery is made ; the 
balance of the globe is redressed. A continent nearly 
equal in extent to one half the ancient hemisphere is 
brought to light. What momentous questions pre- 
sent themselves ! Another world ! Is it a twin sis- 
ter of the ancient world 1 It has mountains, and 
rivers, and lakes, and forests, but does it contain the 
homes of kindred man ; — of cultivated races, Avho 
have pursued, independently of their Eastern breth- 
ren, separate, perhaps higher paths of civilization 1 
In a word, has the great cause of Humanity made an 
immediate gain by the wonderful event which has 
added so much to the geography of the world as be- 
fore known ? 

The first contact answered these questions in the 
negative. The native races, apparently incapable of 



69 



assimilation, seemed doomed by a mysterious Provi- 
dence to pass away. The Spaniard came upon them, 
borne on winged monsters, as they thought, from be- 
yond the sea; careering on strange quadrupeds, — 
horse and rider, as they supposed, forming but one 
animal ; and he advanced under cover of that fearful 
ordnance, which they mistook for the three-bolted 
artillery of the skies. He came in all these terrors 
and he brought them death. Those that escaped 
have borrowed little from us but the poisonous cup, 
— the 'loathsome malady, — the murderous weapon. 
The skies are mild, the soil is fertile, there is every 
variety of climate, — a boundless theatre for human 
enjoyment and action, — but the appointed agent was 
not there. Over the greater part of the new-found 
continent, society, broken down by eternal wars be- 
tween neighboring tribes, — at once in its decrepitude 
and infancy, — had not yet risen even to the pastoral 
stage. Nature, in fact, had not bestowed upon man 
the mute but faithful partners of his toil, — the horse, 
the ox, the sheep, and other still humbler associates, 
whose aid (did he but know it) lies at the basis of 
his civilization ; who furnish so much of his food and 
clothing, meat, milk, eggs, wool, skins, and relieve his 
weary muscles of their heaviest burdens. In a word, 
there was no civilized population to stand up and en- 
ter into equal comparison and generous rivalry with 
Europe. The discoverer has come ; but the settler, 
the colonist, the conqueror, alas that I must add ! 
too often the oppressor and destroyer, are to follow 
in his train. By these various agencies, joyous and 



70 



sorrowful, through these paths of triumph and woe, 
the culture of the Old World, in the lapse of succes- 
sive generations reformed of its abuses, enriched with 
new arts, animated by a higher spirit of humanity, 
transferred from the privileged few to the mass of the 
community, is to be reproduced and perfected in 
the West. 

I need not say to this company, assembled on the 
shore of the haven for which so many noble hearts on 
that terrible voyage throbbed with sickening expec- 
tancy, — that quiet haven where the Mayflower furled 
her tattered sails, — that a greater, a nobler work was 
never performed by man. Truly, the opus magnum, 
the great work of humanity. You bid me speak of 
that portion of it which devolved on the Pilgrims. 
Would to heaven I could find words to do justice 
even to my own poor conceptions, and still more that 
I could find conceptions not far below the august re- 
ality ! A mighty work of improvement, in which 
(not to speak of what has been done in other por- 
tions of the continent) the poor, solitary Mayflower, 
so to say, has multiplied herself into the thousand 
vessels that bear the flag of the Union to every sea ; 
has scattered her progeny through the land, to the 
number of nearly a quarter of a million for every in- 
dividual in that drooping company of one hundred ; 
and in place of the simple compact which was signed 
in her cabin, to which you, sir, [Governor Clifl"ord,] 
have just alluded, has exhibited to the admiration of 
mankind a constitution of republican government for 
all this growing family of prosperous States. But 



71 



the work is in its infancy ; my honored friend will 
indulge me in the bright vision of its certain prog- 
ress. It must extend throughout the length and 
breadth of the land ; and what is not done directly 
by ourselves must be done by other governments 
and other races, by the light of our example. The 
work — the work must go on. It must reach at the 
North to the enchanted cave of the magnet, with- 
in never-melting barriers of Arctic ice ; it must bow 
to the lord of day on the altar-peaks of Chimbo- 
razo ; it must look up and worship the Southern 
Cross. From the easternmost cliff on the Atlantic, 
that blushes in the kindling dawn, to the last prom- 
ontory on the Pacific, which catches the parting kiss 
of the setting sun, as he goes down to his pavilion of 
purple and gold, it must make the outgoings of the 
morning and evening to rejoice, in the gladsome light 
of morals, and letters, and arts. Emperors, and kings, 
and parliaments, — the oldest and the strongest gov- 
ernments in Europe, — must engage in this work in 
some part or other of the continent, but no part of it 
shall be so faithfully and successfully performed as that 
which was undertaken on the spot where we are now 
gathered, by the Pilgrim Fathers of New England. 

Providence from the beginning strewed their path 
with salutary hardships. Formidable difficulties beset 
them from the first. Three years of weary negotia- 
tion had failed to procure for these noble adventurers 
the express sanction of the British government; they 
scarcely obtained its reluctant and tacit permission 
to banish themselves to the ends of the earth ; and 



72 



their shattered private fortunes allowed but the mean- 
est outfit; but on the 1st of August, 1620, under 
these poor auspices, they embarked, a handful of Pil- 
grims, to lay upon this spot the foundation, not only 
of this our beloved New England, but of all that por- 
tion of United America which traces its descent to 
this venerated stock. 

When we contrast the heart-stricken company 
which on that day wept and knelt on the quay at 
Delft Haven, till the impassive spectators, ignorant of 
the language in which their prayers were offered, 
and the deep fountains of grief from which their sor- 
rows flowed, were yet fain to melt into sympathetic 
tears, — when we compare them with the busy, pros- 
perous millions of our present New England, — we 
seem to miss that due proportion between results and 
their causes which history delights to trace. But a 
deeper and more appreciative study reveals the secret. 

There are two Master Ideas, greatest of the spir- 
itual images enthroned in the mind of man, the only 
ideas, comparatively speaking, which deserve a name 
among men, springs of all the grand beneficent move- 
ments of modern times, by whose influence the settle- 
ment of New England may be rationally explained. 
You have anticipated me, descendants of the Pil- 
grims, these Great Ideas are God and Liberty. It 
was these that inspired our Fathers ; by these that 
their weakness was clothed with power, that their 
simplicity was transmuted to wisdom ; by these that 
the great miracle of their enterprise was wrought. 

I am aware that to ascribe such a result, even in 



73 



part, to the influence of religion, will sound like 
weakness and superstition in this material age ; — an 
age at once supremely sceptical and supremely credu- 
lous, which is ready to believe in every thing spirit- 
ual rather than God, and admits all marvels but the 
interposition of his providence ; — an age which sup- 
poses it a thing of every day's occurrence to evoke 
from their awful rest the spirits of the great and 
good, and believes that master intellects, who while 
they lived, obstructed with these organs of sense, 
ravished the ear with the tongues of men, and, having 
now cast off " this muddy vesture of decay," are gone 
where they speak with the tongues of angels, can 
yet fl.nd no medium of communication from the eter- 
nal world but wretched inarticulate rappings and 
clatterings, which pot-house clowns would be ashamed 
to use in their intercourse with each other, — as if 
our matchless Choate, for instance, who has just elec- 
trified the land with a burst of eloquence not easily 
paralleled in the line of time, and worthy of the 
illustrious subject of his eulogy, if sent with a mes- 
sage from a higher stage of being, would creep skulk- 
ing and rapping behind the wainscot, instead of com- 
ing in robes of light, with a voice like the music of 
the spheres ; — an age, I say, that believes all this, 
and yet doubts and sneers at the wonder-working 
fervprs of earnest men, swayed by the all-powerful 
influence of sincere faith. 

It believes — yes, in the middle of the nineteenth 
century, it believes that you can have the attraction 
of gravitation, which holds the universe together, sus- 
10 



74 



pended by a showman for a dollar, who will make a 
table dance round the room by an act of volition, — 
forgetful of the fact, that, if the law of gravitation 
were suspended for the twinkling of an eye, by any 
other Power than that which ordained it, every plan- 
et that walks the firmament, yea, all the starry suns, 
centres of the countless systems, unseen of mortal 
eyes, which fill the unfathomed depths of the heavens, 
would crumble back to chaos, — but it can see in the 
Pilgrims nothing but a handful of narrow-minded 
bigots, driven by discontent from the Old World to 
the New ; and can find nothing in the majestic pro- 
cess by which United America has been established 
as a grand temple of religious and civil liberty, — a 
general refuge of humanity, — but a chapter in polit- 
ical history, which neither requires nor admits ex- 
planation. 

Mr. President, this may sound like philosophy, but 
it is the philosophy of the Sadducee ; it is a text on 
which Isaac Laquedem himself might lecture. It 
quenches the brightest glory of our nature. The 
Pilgrims were actuated by that principle, which, as I 
have just said, has given the first impulse to all the 
great movements of the modern world, — I mean pro- 
found religious faith. They had the frailties of hu- 
manity. This exalted principle itself was combined 
with human weakness. It was mingled with the 
prejudices and errors of age, and country, and sect ; 
it was habitually gloomy ; it was sometimes intoler- 
ant ; but it was reverent, sincere, all-controlling. It 
did not influence, it possessed the soul. It steeled 



75 



the heart to the delights of life ; it raised the frame 
above bodily weakness ; it enabled the humble to 
brave the frowns of power ; it triumphed over cold 
and hunger, the prison and the scaffold ; it taught 
uneducated men to speak with persuasive fervor; it 
gave manly strength and courage to tender and deli- 
cate women. In the admirable letter of E-obinson and 
Brewster, — whom I call great men, Mr. President, 
— written, in 1617, to Sir Edwyn Sandys, — whom, 
they pathetically say, " under God, above all persons 
and things in the world, we rely upon," — among the 
suggestions which they make to encourage him to 
further their undertaking is this : — 

" We do verily believe and trust that the Lord is 
with us, unto whom and whose service we have given 
ourselves in many trials, and that he will graciously 
prosper our endeavors, according to the simplicity of 
our hearts." 

The men who can utter these words with sincerity, 
and who have embarked in a just cause, have already 
succeeded. They may not gather the fruit, but they 
have planted the seed ; others may build, but they 
have laid the foundation. This is the spirit which in all 
ages has wrought the moral miracles of humanity, — 
which rebuked and overturned the elegant corruption 
of the classical polytheism, as it did the darker and 
fiercer rites of Thor and Woden, — which drove back 
the false and licentious crescent into Asia, and held 
Europe together through the night of the Middle 
Ages, — which, limited ^neither to country, commun- 
ion, nor sex, despite of human weaknesses and errors, 



76 



in the missions of Paraguay and the missions of the 
Sandwich Islands, in "Winthrop, in Penn, and in 
Wesley, in Eliza Seton and Mary Ware, has accom- 
plished the beneficent wonders of Christian faith and 
love. 

But, sir, our fathers embraced that second grand 
idea of civil liberty with not less fervor than the 
first. It was a kindred fruit of the same stock. 
They cherished it with a zeal not less intense and 
resolute. This is a topic for a volume, rather than 
for the closing sentence of a speech at the dinner- 
table. I will only say that the highest authorities in 
English history, Hume, Hallam, Macaulay, neither 
of them influenced by sympathy with the Puritans, 
concur in the opinion that England was indebted to 
them for the preservation of her liberties in that most 
critical period of her national existence, when the 
question betAveen prerogative and law, absolute au- 
thority and constitutional government, was decided 
for ever. 

In coming to this country, our fathers most cer- 
tainly contemplated, not merely a safe retreat beyond 
the sea, where they could worship God according to 
the dictates of their own conscience, but a local gov- 
ernment founded on popular choice. That their 
foresight stretched onward through the successive 
stages of colonial and provincial government which 
resulted in the establishment of a great republican 
confederacy, it would be extravagant to pretend, but 
from the primitive and venerable compact signed on 
the 11th of November, 1620, on board the Mayflower, 



77 



while she yet nestled in the embrace of Provincetown 
Harbor, after her desolate voyage, like a weary child 
at evening in its mother's arms, through every docu- 
ment and manifesto which bears on the question, 
there is a distinct indication of a purpose to establish 
civil government on the basis of republican equality. 
In a word, Mr. President, their political code unit- 
ed religion and liberty, morals and law, and it dif- 
fered from the wild license which breaks away from 
these restraints, as the well-guided railway engine, 
instinct with mechanical life, conducted by a bold, but 
skilful and prudent hand, and propelled in safety to- 
wards its destination, with glowing axle, along its 
iron grooves, differs from the same engine when its 
speed is rashly urged beyond the point of safety, or 
when, driven by criminal recklessness or murderous 
neglect, it leaps madly from the track, and plunges 
with its crushed and skrieking train into the jaws of 
destruction. 

Mr. Everett was frequently interrupted during the delivery 
of his very eloquent address, and at the close was compliment- 
ed with a round of nine hearty cheers. 

The President. — " The next sentiment I have to offer will 
be received with regret by every son of New England. As the 
gentleman who has just sat down has referred to his speaking 
on one of our celebrations, — in 1824, — I am compelled to 
carry your thoughts a little further back than that. But I will 
simply give as a sentiment : — 

" Our late distinguished fellow-citizen and neighbor^ — the 
orator of 1820, — Daniel Webster." 

The toast was received with a becoming stillness by the au- 
dience. Music, " Pleyel's German Hymn." 



78 



The President. — " On our tables are the words of a poem 
written by a distinguished citizen, — Rev. William P. Lunt of 
Quincy, — in honor of this auspicious occasion. As our time 
is limited, however, we will sing only the first and last stanzas 
of the poem." 

Several ladies and gentlemen then gave the following verses 
in an exceedingly spirited style. 

I. 

Ye men of Christian England, 

That stand for Truth and Right, -^ 

Whose Faith has nerved a thousand hearts. 

In exile and in fight ! 

Your dauntless virtue trust again ; 

In God confide once more ; 

And flee o'er the sea 

Where the stormy waters roar ; 

Where the wrath of man is fainUy heard, 

And the stormy waters roar. 

II. 
The forms of saints and martyrs 
Shall blessed convoy keep ; 
For oft has Christian faith been tried 
" In perils of the deep " ; 
And He who bade the winds " be still," 
Shall speak as once of yore. 
While ye flee through the sea 
Where the stormy waters roar ; 
Where the wrath of man is faintly heard, 
And the stormy waters roar. 

III. 

Batavia has no refuge 
For those who are opprest ; 
That boon is hid for Pilgrim feet 
In deserts of the West ; 



79 



Go, build your cherish'd commonwealth 

On far Columbia's shore, 

And flee o'er the sea 

Where the stormy waters roar ; 

Where the wrath of man is faintly heard, 

And the stormy waters roar. 

IV. 

The Star of Freedom westward 
Must tread its cloudy way, 
Till, breaking from the gloom of night, 
It leads a glorious day : 
^ Then, then, ye sea-tossed wanderers ! 
Shall sons their tribute pour 
To the fame of your name. 
When the waves have ceased to roar ; 
When the wrath of mah is turned to praise, 
And the waves have ceased to roar. 

The President, in giving the next toast, said thay had already 
been delighted with the words of a distinguished member of the 
Senate of the United States. They were favored with the 
presence of another ; and he would give as a sentiment : — 

^'■The Senate of tlie United States, — The concentrated light 
of the stars of the Union." 

Hon. Charles Sumner responded as follows : — 

Mr. Presideist, — You bid me speak for the Senate 
of the United States. But I cannot forget that there 
is another voice here, of classical eloquence, which 
might more fitly render this service. As one of the 
humblest members of that body, and associated with 
the public councils for a brief period only, I should 
prefer that my distinguished colleague [Mr. Everett], 
whose fame is linked with a long political life, should 



80 



speak for it. And there is yet another here [Mr. 
Hale], who, though not at this moment a member of 
the Senate, has, throughout an active and brilliant 
career, marked by a rare combination of ability, elo- 
quence, and good humor, so identified himself with 
it in the public mind, that he might well speak for it 
always, and when he speaks all are pleased to listen. 
But, sir, you have ordered it otherwise. 

From the tears and trials at Delft Haven, from the 
deck of the " Mayflower," from the landing at Ply- 
mouth Rock, to the Senate of the United States, is a 
mighty contrast, covering whole spaces of history, 
hardly less than from the wolf that suckled Romulus 
and Remus to that Roman Senate which, on curule 
chairs, swayed Italy and the world. From these ob- 
scure beginnings of poverty and weakness, which 
you now piously commemorate, and on which all our 
minds naturally rest to-day, you bid us leap to that 
marble Capitol, where thirty-one powerful republics, 
bound in indissoluble union, a Plural Unit, are gath- 
ered together in legislative body, constituting a part 
of One Government, which, stretching from ocean to 
ocean, and counting millions of people beneath its 
majestic rule, surpasses far in wealth and might any 
government of the Old World when the little band 
of Pilgrims left it, and which now promises to be a 
clasp between Europe and Asia, bringing the most 
distant places near together, so that there shall be no 
more Orient or Occident. It were interesting to 
dwell on the stages of this grand procession ; but it 
is enough on this occasion merely to glance at them 
and pass on. 



81 



Sir, it is the Pilgrims that we commemorate to-day ; 
not the Senate. For this moment, at least, let us 
tread under foot all pride of empire, all exultation in 
our manifold triumphs of industry, of science, of lit- 
erature, with all the crowding anticipations of the 
vast untold Future, that we may reverently bow be- 
fore the forefathers. The day is theirs. In the con- 
templation of their virtue we shall derive a lesson, 
which, like truth, may judge us sternly; but, if we 
can really follow it, like truth, it shall make us free. 
For myself, I accept the admonitions of the day. It 
may teach us all never, by word or act, although we 
may be few in numbers or alone, to swerve from 
those primal principles of duty, which, from the land- 
ing at Plymouth Rock, have been the life of Massa- 
chusetts. Let me briefly unfold the lesson ; though 
to the discerning soul it unfolds itself 

Few persons in history have suffered more from 
contemporary misrepresentation, abuse, and persecu- 
tion, than the English Puritans. At first a small 
body, they were regarded with indifference and con- 
tempt. But by degrees they grew in numbers, and 
drew into their company men of education, intelli- 
gence, and even of rank. Reformers in all ages have 
had little of blessing from the world which they 
sought to serve ; but the Puritans were not dis- 
heartened. Still they persevered. The obnoxious 
laws of conformity they vowed to withstand till, in 
the fervid language of the time, " they be sent back 
to the darkness from whence they came." Through 
them the spirit of modern Freedom made itself potent- 
11 



82 



ly felt, in its great warfare with authority, in Church, 
in Literature, and in the State ; in other words, 
for religious, intellectual, and political emancipation. 
The Puritans primarily aimed at religious Freedom ; 
for this they contended in Parliament, under Eliza- 
beth and James ; for this they suffered ; but so con- 
nected are all these great and glorious interests, that 
the struggles for one have always helped the others. 
Such service did they they do, that Hume, whose 
cold nature sympathized little with their burning 
souls, is obliged to confess that to them alone " the 
English owe the Avhole freedom of their constitution." 
As among all reformers, so among them there were 
differences of degree. Some continued within the 
pale of the national Church, and there pressed their 
ineffectual attempts in behalf of the good cause. 
Some at length, driven by conscientious convictions 
and unwilling to be partakers longer in its enormi- 
ties, stung also by the cruel excesses of magisterial 
power, openly disclaimed the national Establishment 
and became a separate sect, first under the name of 
Brownists, from the person who had led in this new 
organization, and then under the better name of Sep- 
aratists. I like this word, sir. It has a meaning. 
After long struggles in Parliament and out of it, in 
Church and State, continued through successive 
reigns, the Puritans finally triumphed, and the de- 
spised sect of Separatists, swollen in numbers, and 
now under the denomination of Independents, with 
Oliver Cromwell as their head and John Milton as 
his Secretary, ruled England. Thus is prefigured 



83 



the final triumph of all, however few in numbers, 
who sincerely devote themselves to Truth. 

The Pilgrims of Plymouth were among the earliest 
of the Separatists. As such, they knew by bitter ex- 
perience all the sharpness of persecution. Against 
them the men in power raged like the heathen. 
Against them the whole fury of the law was directed. 
Some were imprisoned ; all were impoverished, while 
their name became a by- word of reproach. For safety 
and freedom the little band first sought shelter in Hol- 
land, where they continued in indigence and obscu- 
rity for more than ten years, when they were inspired 
to seek a home in this unknown Western world. 
Such in brief is tlieir history. I could not say more 
of it without intruding upon your time ; I could not 
say less without injustice to them. 

Rarely have austere principles been expressed with 
more gentleness than from their lips. By a covenant 
with the Lord, they had vowed to walk in all his 
ways, according to their best endeavors, whatsoever 
it should cost them, — and also to receive whatsoever 
truth should be made known from the written word 
of God. Repentance and prayers, patience and tears, 
were their weapons. " It is not with us," said they, 
" as with other men, whom small things can discour- 
age or small discontentments cause to wish them- 
selves at home again." And then, again, on another 
occasion, their souls were lifted to utterance like 
this: "When we are in our graves it will be all one, 
whether we have lived in plenty or penury, whether 
we have died in a bed of down or on locks of straw." 



84 

And yet these men, with such sublime endurance 
and such lofty faith, are among those who are some- 
times called "Puritan knaves" and "knaves-Puri- 
tan," and who were branded by King James as the 
"very pests in the Church and Commonwealth." 
The small company of our forefathers became the 
jest and gibe of fashion and power. The phrase 
" men of one idea " had not been invented then ; but, 
in equivalent language, they were styled " the pinched 
fanatics of Leyden." A contemporary poet and fa- 
vorite of Charles I., Carew, lent his genius to their 
defamation. A masque, from his elegant and careful 
pen, was performed by the monarch and his courtiers, 
wherein the whole plantation of New England was 
turned to royal sport. The jeer broke forth in the 
exclamation, that it had " purged more virulent hu- 
mors from the politic bodies than guaiacum and all 
the West Indian drugs from the natural bodies of 
the kingdom." 

And these outcasts, despised in their own day by 
the proud and great, are the men whom we have met 
in this goodly number to celebrate ; not for any vic- 
tory of war ; not for any triumph of discovery, sci- 
ence, learning, or eloquence ; not for worldly success 
of any kind. How poor are all these things by the 
side of that divine virtue which made them, amidst 
the reproach, the obloquy, and the hardness of the 
world, hold fast to Freedom and Truth ! Sir, if the 
honors of this day are not a mockery ; if they do not 
expend themselves in mere selfish gratulation ; if 
they are a sincere homaore to the character of the 



85 



Pilgrims, — and I cannot suppose otherwise, — then 
is it well for us to be here. Standing on Plymouth 
Hock, at their great anniversary, we cannot fail to 
be inspired by their example. We see clearly what 
it has done for the world and what it has done for 
their fame. No pusillanimous soul here to-day will 
declare their self-sacrifice, their deviation from re- 
ceived opinions, their unquenchable thirst for liberty, 
an error or illusion. From gushing multitudinous 
hearts we now thank these lowly men that they dared 
to be true and brave. Conformity or compromise 
might, perhaps, have purchased for them a profitable 
peace, but not peace of mind ; it might have se- 
cured place and power, but not repose ; it might 
have opened a present shelter, but not a home in his- 
tory and in men's hearts till time shall be no more. 
All will confess the true grandeur of their example, 
while, in vindication of a cherished principle, they 
stood alone, against the madness of men, against 
the law of the land, against their king. Better be 
the despised Pilgrim, a fugitive for freedom, than 
the halting politician, forgetful of principle, " with 
a Senate at his heels." 

Such, sir, is the voice from Plymouth Eock, as it 
salutes my ears. Others may not hear it. But to 
me it comes in tones which I cannot mistake. I 
catch its words of noble cheer : — 

" New occasions teach new duties ; Time makes ancient good 
uncouth ; 
They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of 
Truth : 



86 



Lo, before us gleam her carnp-fires ! we ourselves must Pil- 
grims be, 

Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate 
winter sea." 

The President. — "There have been so many eloquent 
voices in our Senate that I might say I do not know to whom 
the gentleman referred. But' I will not tell that story. Every 
painter, when executing his picture, claims the right to put the 
figures upon the canvas in his own way. A living voice from 
that Senate will be heard here this afternoon." 

The President then proceeded to read a letter from the Hon. 
R. C. Winthrop. 

Niagara Falls, July 23, 1853. 
My dear Sir : — 

Your obliging communication of last month, inviting me to unite 
with the Pilgrim Society in celebrating the Anniversary of the Em- 
barkation of the Pilgrims at Delft Plaven, on the 1st of August, was 
duly received. 

I thank you for it sincerely, and still more for the very kind and 
complimentary terms in which it was conveyed. I have deferred 
giving it a formal and final answer until this late day, from a real 
reluctance to say no, and from the hope that I might still see my 
way clear to be present on the occasion. But I am journeying in 
this region with my family, for their health as well as for my own, 
and there is no longer the slightest prospect of my being within 
striking distance of Plymouth for some weeks to come. 

I have united heretofore in commemorating the virtues and hero- 
ism of our Pilgrim Fathers both on the 22d day of December and 
on the 17th day of September, and I should cordially join in con- 
secrating still another day to their memory. They cannot be re- 
membered too often, or reverenced too deeply ; — and that, not as 
a mere matter of respect and gratitude to the dead, but for the im- 
provement and instruction of the living. 

Rarely, indeed, has there been a moment in our history when it 
was more important than at this moment that the American peo- 
ple should remember not merely the rock on which the Pilgrims 



87 



landed, but the Rock in which they trusted, and should cherish and 
hold fast to the principles which fitted them to become the fathers 
and founders of a great country. 

We are rushing along in the path of national development and 
extension with a velocity, of which the Rapids at this moment in 
my view hardly furnish an exaggerated emblem ; and there is too 
much cause for apprehension that the roar of the torrent, and its 
sparkling spray, and its many-colored mist, may deafen and dazzle 
and blind us to the dangers which always beset an impulsive and 
precipitate career. It will be well if we do not forget that the only 
safe and sure progress is the PilgrinCs Progress ; — a progress 
begun, continued, and ended in the fear of God, in respect for 
government, in the love of freedom, and in justice to all mankind. 

The descendants of the Pilgrims and the sons of New England 
are now scattered far and wide over a vast continent, and their en- 
terprise and influence are upon every plain and hill-side and river 
of our land. Let them see to it that their lives and practice are in 
keeping with the origin of which they are so justly proud, and let 
them prove their title to hail from Plymouth Eock, not merely by 
genealogies and pedigrees, but by emblazoning the virtues and prin- 
ciples of the Pilgrims upon their own character and conduct. Then 
will our country be secure. 

Accept once more, my dear sir, my cordial thanks for your 
friendly and flattering invitation, with an assurance of my sincere 
regret at being unable to be with you, and allow me to place at 
your disposal for the occasion the subjoined sentiment, which has 
been suggested by the scene before me : — 

Plymouth Rock, — May it never become a Table Rock, upon 
whose crumbling platform the descendants of the Pilgrims shall as- 
semble to contemplate the decline and fall of the American Union. 
Believe me, very faithfully yours, 

Robert C. Winthrop. 

The President. — "And now, gentlemen, from Massachu- 
setts we will go in a short twinkling to South Carolina. I give, — 

" South Carolina, — We Avelcome her sons to the birthplace 
of New England." . 

Music, " Polka." 



88 



Mr. Richard Yeadon, of the Charleston (S. C.) Courier, 
responded as follows : — 

Descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers, — The dis- 
tinguished and generous compliment just paid to the 
State of South Carolina, and the enthusiastic manner 
in which it has been received by this vast and patri- 
otic throng, devolve on me, in the opinion of my 
fellow South- Carolinians here present, the office and 
the duty of attempting to make a suitable response. 
In recent memory, however, of the noble and classic 
strains of eloquence w^hich have rolled from distin- 
guished New England lips, and ravished New Eng- 
land ears and hearts, this day, — strains [pointing to 
Mr. Everett] which are only comparable to the mu- 
sic of the spheres, and lips which, like those of the 
prophets of old, may justly be styled lips of fire, — I 
almost sink appalled from the task, and dread to min- 
gle the feeble and discordant notes of my penny 
whistle with the trumpet tones and rich harmonies 
of illustrious speakers worthy of the Athenian ros- 
trum or the Roman Senate in their palmiest days. 
But never shall it be said that the Palmetto Fort 
failed to respond to Bunker Hill, either in the inter- 
change of the friendly salute, or in the discharge of 
volleyed thunder and iron hail against the common 
foes of our common country. Like the gallant and 
lamented Butler, the commander and the hero of the 
ever-glorious Palmetto regiment, I must not, and will 
not, shun a place in the picture, though it be near 
the flashing of the guns. 

Sons of the Pilgrim Sires, — I feel honored in my 



89 



association with you this day, in the festive, although 
temperate, celebration of an event, than which none 
more important in its bearings on human destiny is 
chronicled on the historic page. It is the departure 
of your Pilgrim fathers and Pilgrim mothers from 
Delft Haven on the 1st of August, 1620, in that frail 
and often imperilled bark, the Mayflower, under the 
guidance of their pastor and of their God, to seek 
religious and establish civil liberty in the wilderness 
of America, — to found an eternal rock, the rock of 
truth, externally symbolled by the Plymouth Rock, 
near which we reverentially and joyously stand, — a 
new empire of freedom, destined to solve successfully 
the problem of popular self-government, and to sur- 
pass, in extent of territorial domain, in greatness and 
glory, and in the production of the greatest good to 
the greatest number, all other empires, ancient or 
modern, which history records in her instructive an- 
nals, or which yet play their parts on the grand 
theatre of national existence. Descended, as I am 
maternally, and as numbers of my fellow South-Car- 
olinians are, either paternally or maternally, from 
Huguenot ancestors, who fled from even greater per- 
secutions than did your Puritan fathers, and encoun- 
tered equal perils and made equal sacrifices with 
them for religion and liberty, I can fully sympathize 
and fraternize in feeling, in principle, and in hope, 
Avith this multitudinous concourse of worthy sons as- 
sembled to do honor and reverence to worthy sires, — 
decked and crowned as it is with the beaming presence 
of the lovely daughters of the Pilgrim mothers. 
12 



90 



Permit me, fellow-citizens of Massachusetts, to 
seize this occasion for the purpose of twining a 
common garland in honor of the illustrious and 
now immortal trio, who, after serving their common 
country with an extent and variety of service that 
made them and her glorious, have gone successively 
and at short intervals to the grave, to be mourned by 
their mother States with a domestic and a hearth- 
stone grief, — a sorrow that refuses to be comforted ; 
by sister States, also, with responsive sympathy, and 
by the nation at large, as bereft at once of her bright- 
est and most cherished jewels, and her strongest and 
noblest pillars. Clay, Webster, and Calhoun were, 
beyond all comparison, the three men of America; 
and long, if ever, will it be ere three stars equal 
in magnitude and lustre will be again seen culmi- 
nating at the same time on our national meridian. 
The similitudes and affinities in their gifts, history, 
and career are numerous and striking. They were 
not far removed from each other in age, and they 
came very nearly at the same time on the arena of 
public and political life. Each, in the very incipi- 
ency of his public career, was recognized as an intel- 
lectual Hercules, and sprang, at a single bound, to 
the loftiest eminence. Each, while living, was the 
most cherished son of his particular State ; and now 
that all of them are tenants of the grave, neither of 
their mother States would exchange her dead offspring 
for any living son in Christendom. Each, in his 
own section, stood without compeer in greatness and 
in the popular affections ; yet each was regarded as 



91 



the common property of the republic, rendering her 
illustrious service in the Senate, in the Cabinet, and 
in the field of diplomacy, influencing her measures 
and her destiny by their sage counsels, in peace and 
in war, identified with her history and her onward 
march, and, in a large measure, constituting her 
fame. They all alike towered above the men of their 
country and of their time, moral and intellectual 
pyramids in the midst of an intellectual and enlight- 
ened generation. Each was a practical farmer, fond 
of rural elegance and rural pursuits, and skilled in 
agricultural science. Calhoun, at Fort Hill, his ele- 
gant and well-ordered mountain farm ; Clay, amid 
the shades and rural wealth of his beautiful and 
romantic Ashland; and Webster at his Marshfield, 
encircled by agricultural abundance, reposing from 
the cares of state, and dispensing neighborly kindness 
and elegant hospitality, — each aspired to the chief 
magistracy of the republic, seeking the noble end by 
noble means, and with motives " that make ambition 
virtue " ; and each alike failed to win the noble and 
glittering prize, and each alike deserving, although 
not commanding success. There was, perhaps, too, 
a similarity in the reasons or causes of their common 
failure. Clay, when about to make his great anti- 
Abolition speech in the Senate of 1839, was warned 
by a gifted Senator from South Carolina, — the Hon. 
William C. Preston, — that, with his well-known 
opinions on the question of slavery, and in view of 
his aspirations for the Presidency, it would be as well 
not unnecessarily to offend the Abolitionists ; but the 



92 



prompt and decisive answer of the great Kentuckian 
and patriotic American was, " I would rather be 
right than be President " ; and the Abolitionists be- 
came thenceforth his bitterest foes, and in all proba- 
bility prevented his election to the Presidency in the 
subsequent contest with Mr. Polk. We learn, from 
the eloquent and classical eulogy of the accomplished 
Choate, worthy to take its place in the richest casket 
and among the brightest gems of English oratory 
and English literature, that a similar incident adorns 
the history and illustrates the character of the illus- 
trious Webster. When warned that his patriotic 
and constitutional course on the compromise of 1850 
would endanger his prospects to the chief magistracy 
of the nation, " with his great eyes glowing, and the 
very lightning flashing from his face," his answer 
was, " I would not swerve a hair for the Presi- 
dency." So, too, with Calhoun, the stiffness of his 
unpopular opinions on the subject of State Pights, 
and especially the Poman firmness of his opinions on 
the great and absorbing question of Southern rights, 
were the chief barriers to his success as an aspirant 
for the Presidency. But although they all stood alike 
excluded, by their very greatness, from the Presiden- 
tial chair, every one agrees that they want nothing 
earthly to complete their fame ; that they would have 
been more honoring than honored in wearing the 
Presidential laurel ; and that as " Senators in the Sen- 
ate-house " they were as suns in the political firma- 
ment, eclipsing in lustre and in glory the lesser stars 
that have twinkled their feeble radiance from the 



93 



highest place of the republic. That there were diver- 
sities between them in the structure of their minds, 
in the character of their intellectual endowments, in 
their mental habitudes, in their range of knowledge, 
and in their order and style of speaking and of elo- 
quence, cannot be doubted ; but wherever they dif- 
fered, it was as one star difFereth from another star 
in glory. Similar as they were in their lives, in death 
they were not far divided, and they met the final 
doom of mortality in very similar circumstances, — 
each dying at the post of duty and in the harness of 
the republic, — two of them at the national capital, 
and the third during an intended temporary absence 
from it, but while yet charged with the cares of the 
nation. It is recorded in Holy Writ, that " the 
glory of the terrestrial is one, and the glory of the 
celestial is another " ; and these illustrious compeers 
having coequaliy participated in the one, may we 
not piously, in this mundane sphere, indulge the hope 
that they are now rejoicing and beatified participants 
in the other one, — the heavenly courts, the empyre- 
an realms above 'i 

Before closing my remarks, so inadequate to this 
great and interesting occasion, I cannot forbear doing 
reverence to the manes and the shade of the illustrious 
Webster for his constitutional fidelity to the South. 
It sprang from principle as well as feelings imbibed 
from parental instruction ; and it is no wonder that the 
boy who first read and studied the constitution of his 
country on a cotton handkerchief, should have been 
unswerving and faithful in giving the full benefit of 



94 



that constitution to the cotton States of the South 
and West. It was under this hallowed influence 
that, at Richmond, in 1840, he made the memorable 
declaration, that, " in the capital of Virginia, under 
the light of an October sun, he gave it to the wings 
of the wind, and wished it borne to every corner of 
the republic, that Congress had no power whatever, 
directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution 
of slavery in the several States " ; and it was in the 
same spirit that he took that noble stand in 1850, 
which saved his country from fraternal strife, — the 
Union from dissolution. And while thus, as a South- 
erner, rendering homage to the illustrious dead, let 
me also do homage to the illustrious living, and 
return my grateful thanks to the great speaker of 
the day, the gifted, the glorious Everett (Webster's 
worthy successor in the Cabinet and in the Senate- 
chamber), for the declaration and sentiment uttered 
by him in Congress, many years ago, but still indel- 
ibly impressed on my memory : " There is no cause 
in Avhich I would more readily shoulder a musket, 
than to put down a servile insurrection in the South." 
Let me here, too, narrate an anecdote, or an incident, 
connected with the great Carolinian, and his love 
and admiration for Massachusetts and Boston. It 
was in my last conversation with him, just before he 
departed from Charleston on his last mission to 
Washington, that he broke out in warm, glowing, 
and loving eulogy of Massachusetts and Boston, — 
referring to the time when Josiah Quincy came as a 
missionary from Massachusetts to Charleston and 



95 



South Carolina, to enlist the descendants of the Hu- 
guenots with the descendants of the Puritans, in the 
Boston tea-party, in the coming struggle for American 
independence, which then cast its great shadow be- 
fore, — dwelling, with evident pleasure, on the ancient 
ties, political and social, which once united the two 
sister commonwealths and the two sister cities, and 
discoursing eloquently on the affinities which yet 
obtained between them, in conservation, in hospi- 
tality, and in social elegance and refinement. 

Let such principles and feelings — such as ani- 
mated the bosoms of the dead AVebster and Calhoun, 
and such as yet animate the bosom of the living Ev- 
erett — be cherished and imitated, and the Union will 
be indeed perpetual, — realizing the loftiest and hap- 
piest destiny for itself, with the two oceans for its 
longitudinal, and the North Pole and the Isthmus 
of Darien for its latitudinal boundaries, — civilizing, 
Christianizing, and peopling the American continent, 
and by their glorious example and influence regen- 
erating the human race. In the language of the 
Union anthem of a gifted son of New England, who 
has made the sunny South his home, I would say, 
this day, from a full heart : — 

" Dear to us the South's fair land, 
Dear the central mountain band, 
Dear New England's rocky strand, 
Dear the prairied West ! " 

In conclusion, and in renewed reference to the 
great and lamented dead, I would suggest that a 
common memorial in the shape of a work of art, so 



96 



perfect in design and creation as to challenge and 
command the admiration of the world, should rise to 
perpetuate the memory, worth, and services of the 
illustrious trio, so alike in life and in death, emanat- 
ing either from the nation at large, or from the three 
States more immediately concerned, as alike honored 
and alike bereaved. I would, therefore, propose as 
a sentiment : — 

Clay, Webster, Calhoun, — Let a group of stat- 
uary, chiselled in Parian marble, perpetuate their 
memory at the national capital ; or let Kentucky, 
Massachusetts, and South Carolina pile a common 
monument to the illustrious three at Ashland, Marsh- 
field, or Fort Hill, to awaken the admiration and 
kindle the emulation of posterity, " till suns shall set 
and rise no more." 

The next regular toast was given : — 

" The Puritans, — They could not be conformists. They 
would not be hypocrites." 

Hon. C. W. Upham, being called on to respond, said : — 

Mr. President, — The sentiment to which you 
have done me the honor to request me to respond, 
proclaims in a few words the true glory of our Pil- 
grim ancestors. They were confessors and martyrs 
of principle. They might have remained, in the con- 
tinued enjoyment of comfort, competence, and respec- 
tability, at home, in the land of their nativity, and in 
the midst of many blessings and privileges, surround- 
ed by friends and kindred, and pursuing the peace- 
ful and secure paths of their accustomed daily walk. 



97 



But to do this, it would have been necessary to 
conform to usages which their consciences con- 
demned, and to participate in ceremonies repugnant 
to their sentiments. The sacrifice, or rather com- 
promise, thus required of them was not, perhaps, 
greater than many persons justly regarded with gen- 
eral respect, in our less scrupulous times, consider it 
not indefensible to make. 

The Pilgrim Fathers took a different view of the 
subject. Although some of the points of their reso- 
lute non-conformity may appear trivial in the eyes of- 
certain modern writers, in their minds they were 
identified with the essence of religion, and implicated 
inseparably with its very roots. 

In order to avoid a resistance of the established 
authority, and the penalties, persecutions, and suffer- 
ings consequent on that resistance, and to secure the 
privilege of regulating the forms of their worship, 
and the habits of their life, according to their own 
religious convictions, without molesting or being mo- 
lested by any, they abandoned all, and came over to 
this wilderness. 

The motives that actuated them were fidelity to 
convictions of truth and duty, and a desire to live in 
peace. These motives combined formed a character 
of the most perfect pattern, at once noble and lovely. 
To these principles they consecrated themselves, and 
the country of which they became the founders. By 
a faithful maintenance and inculcation of these prin- 
ciples, we are to prove ourselves worthy of our glori- 
ous ancestry. 

13 



98 



The fact that they were influenced, not only by de- 
votion to truth, but also by a love of peace, in their 
voluntary exile, has not, I think, been sufficiently 
appreciated. There were lovelier features blended 
with their sterner traits. Although uncompromising, 
they were not bigoted. The divine sentiments of 
Christian charity were never more beautifully dis- 
played than by the patriarch of the Plymouth 
church, when he declared that the Lord had more 
truth yet to break forth from his word ; or by the 
patriarch of the Salem church, when, leaning from 
the stern of the vessel in which he was borne from 
her shores, as they sunk in the receding horizon, 
with streaming eyes and outstretched arms, he bade 
" farewell to dear England," and implored the bless- 
ings of Heaven upon the Church which was driving 
him out to perish in a Transatlantic wilderness. 

Fellow-citizens, with all your affectionate and de- 
voted efforts to keep fresh in your hearts the memory 
of your Pilgrim Fathers, it is impossible for you, born 
and reared in the comforts and securities of an old 
settlement, to realize the condition of the first gen- 
eration of the Pilgrims. On this point, allow me to 
say, I claim an advantage over you. I passed the 
years of my childhood — that period when the deep- 
est impressions are made on the memory — in pre- 
cisely such circumstances as surrounded the original 
colonists of Massacl^usetts Bay, on a rugged coast, 
with an unbroken wilderness behind it. The roman- 
tic and thrilling incidents of such a life — the midnight 
howl of the wolf, the Indian gliding in his birch ca- 



99 



noe, the solemn depths of the forest — are among 
my most familiar reminiscences. If I could but tran- 
scribe the pictures tlius delineated on my memory, — 
so foreign from the experience of all who hear me, — 
you would be better able, I think, to appreciate 
the privations, perils, sufferings, and trials of your 
first American ancestors, than through the medium 
of any narrative, however minute, drawn up by sub- 
sequent historians, or any painting, however perfect 
in execution, derived from a fancy source. It is this 
which invests the original documents edited by Rev. 
Dr. Young, " The Chronicles of the Pilgrims," with 
their peculiar interest. 

But through all their sufferings they never de- 
spaired. Their noble souls were borne aloft, in a 
faith that was itself an inspiration. It is the opinion 
of some commentators and theologians, that the He- 
brew prophets had, often, no realizing discernment 
of the truths they foretold, — certain imagery was 
traced before their rapt vision by the Divine hand, 
and all they did was to describe it, utterly uncon- 
scious of the august interpretation which the events of 
long and subsequent centuries disclosed. So it was 
with our fathers. Lowly as was their lot, bereft of 
all worldly greatness, placed beyond the possibility 
of dreaming of any, — still there was, in their policy, 
their phraseology, and their type of character, a won- 
derful foreshadowing of the glorious destiny awaiting 
their descendants. Providence has given a fulfilment 
to their words and deeds, vastly greater than ever 
entered their imaginations. Their very errors have 



100 



been translated into truths too grand to have been 
foreseen. An ignorance of the geography of America 
extended their charter limits from sea to sea. The 
crowded history of two hundred years has turned that 
ignorance into a prophecy, and the Pilgrim empire, 
dating from the hour when the foot of the exile first 
pressed the Rock of Plymouth, reaches to-day from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific shore. 

But it is not for me, fellow-citizens, to attempt 
these great topics. I will occupy your attention but 
a moment longer, in reference to the circumstances 
which, connecting Salem with Plymouth, have led to 
the invitation with which your committee of arrange- 
ments have honored me. 

Some dozen years ago, quite a warm, but most 
amicable little newspaper controversy took place be- 
tween your amiable and truly venerable townsman, 
the late Dr. Thacher, and myself, which terminated, 
as very few controversies ever do, in a complete con- 
viction and hearty acknowledgment that both of us 
were entirely in the right. It related to the priority 
of the Salem and Plymouth churches. The conclu- 
sion of the matter was, that the church of Salem was 
the first created in the country, but that the church 
of Plymouth is older than the country itself Be- 
fore a settler had landed or a tree been felled at 
Naumkeag, the church still flourishing here was in 
the full exercise of its functions in England and in 
Holland, and its illustrious pastor was recognized as 
among the brightest of the shining lights of Euro- 
pean Christendom. 



101 



It is the common glory and pride of Plymouth and 
Salem, that Roger Williams was shared between 
them. And, at this day, the First Church of Salem 
is indebted to the First Church of Plymouth for a 
living preacher, imbued with his spirit, and worthy 
of his mantle. At the origin of our settlement, you 
also sent to us, at a time of our great need, a skilful 
physician. Dr. Fuller, who, while he prescribed to 
the maladies of the flesh, advised with our fathers in 
reference to the true method of establishing a church 
according to the word of God. And on the 6th of 
August, 1629, the day when the Salem church was 
organized. Governor Bradford went over in a shallop, 
accompanied by several of the Plymouth brethren, to 
give us the right hand of fellowship. 

In view of this incident, allow me, in conculsion, 
to ofl'er a sentiment : — 

" So long as the waves of the Bay roll between 
them, old Salem and old Plymouth will stretch forth 
and clasp the hands of a cordial fellowship." 

The President here announced that the evening mail had 
brought a number of letters, -which, for want of time, he hoped 
the audience would consider as having been read. He would 
barely read one from Hon. David Sears and one from Hon. 
B. F. Hallett. 

Newport, R. I., July 2G, 1853. 

Dear Sir: — 
I particularly regret that I am unable to attend the meeting of 
the Pilgrim Society at Plymouth on the 1st of August, And the 
more, since the invitation has been so kindly extended to the Cape 
Cod Association, I should have been proud to have appeared as its 
head on that occasion. 



102 



But with all our facilities of intercourse, I cannot leave Newport 
to be in Plymouth on Monday morning, and return, in less ihamfour 
days ; and at present my health is such, as to render it inconvenient, 
if not dangerous, for me to be absent so long. I have the satisfac- 
tion, however, to know that through you, as my substitute, the C. C. 
will be ably led, and that your eloquence will compensate for all 
deficiencies of representation. Speak of the Association according 
to its merits, and that it has among its principal objects " the en- 
couragement of generous sentiments, and the social affections" of 
the native-born Pilgrims, and descendants of the Pilgrim Cape. 

I understand it is in contemplation to propose a subscription for 
the erection of a monument on the base of the rock on which the 
Pilgrims of the Mayflower, and their followers within ten years, 
first landed. It is a noble thought, and I am sure the respon.se to 
it will be full and hearty. You will do me the favor to subscribe 
what is fit and proper /or me, as President of the Cape Cod Asso- 
ciation. I shall afterwards add my subscription as a lineal de- 
scendant of Richard Sears of Plymouth. 

I heartily wish you a fair day for the 1st of August, and a happy 
and successful time at Plymouth. Express my regrets to Pres- 
ident Warren, and the Committee of the Pilgrim Society, and 
believe me, very respectfully. 

Your obedient, humble servant, 

David Sears, 
President of the Cape Cod Association. 

Hon. Benjamin F. Hallett, Vice President of the Cape Cod Association. 



Boston, August 1, 1853. 
Dear SiK : ^- 
I regret the necessity of declining your polite invitation to visit 
you at your residence this evening at Plymouth, and as I cannot 
participate in the fesiival of the day, 1 feel it a duty to inclose 
to you a letter from the President of the Cape Cod Association, 
Hon. David Sears, which has matter in it worthy the President of 
such an Association. I refer to his suggestion of a subscription for 
the erection of a monument on the base of the rock upon which 
the Pilgrims landed. 



103 



Should the proposed subscription take form and shape at your 
festival, I authorize you to use the very liberal power Mr. Sears 
conferred on me, by attaching to his name, as President of the 
Cape Cod Associa-tion, the sum of four hundred dollars, to which, 
as his letter intimates, he will claim the right, as a descendant of 
Richard Sears of Plymouth, of adding such additional subscription 
as he may think proper. 

The Cape Cod Association is prevented meeting her elder and 
well-beloved sister, the Pilgrim Society, as she would gladly have 
done, not only by reason of the absence of the President of the As- 
sociation, but of her distinguished first Vice-President, Chief Justice 
Shaw, now on a visit to Europe. 

If you will permit us to boast of our jewels, as we freely will you 
to extol yours, we can well say that we take pride, in common with 
the whole country, in being able to present to the Jurists of Eng- 
land an American Judge who will rank, in the science and expo- 
sition of Jurisprudence, with the most eminent of her Bench. 

Nevertheless, although those we would have rejoiced to send to 
your festival will not be there, you will find our Association wor- 
thily represented in speech and sentiment, for Cape Cod was never 
yet known to be without her Tongues and Sounds. 
Very respectfully, 

B. F. Hallett, 
Vice-Pres. Cape Cod Association. 
Richard "Warren, Esq., President of the Pilgrim Society. 

The next toast announced was, — 

" Our first Spiritual Planters, the early Clergy of New 
England, — Who, to save their consciences, renounced their 
livings at home, in exchange for the wilderness abroad." 

Rev. George W. Blagden, of Boston, responded as fol- 
lows : — 

I. I am not sorry, Mr. President, that the first 
point in the sentiment you have just uttered presents 
a topic, on which the clergy have been sometimes 



104 



thought to be somewhat vulnerable ; I mean " their 
livings." 

I remember that Thomas Paine, in writing on this 
subject, cites the passage of Scripture, " Thou shalt 
not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn " ; and 
then deridingly exclaims, " O priests ! priests ! ye 
are willing to be compared to an ox, for the sake of 
tithes ! " To which Bishop Watson, in his admira- 
ble work in reply to Paine, — called " An Apology for 
the Bible," — very justly rejoins, after a very short, 
but pungent train of remark : " It amounts to this, 
that ' the laborer is worthy of his hire.' Husband- 
men, artists, soldiers, physicians, lawyers, all let out 
their labor and talents for a stipulated reward ; why 
may not a priest do the same ? " 

Nevertheless, Mr. President, as the clergy are but 
men, they may, in some cases, betray the fact of their 
loving " filthy lucre " inordinately. We wish not to 
cover their faults. There are examples, however, of 
a very different kind. And such are seen in the Non- 
conformist clergy of Old England, — from whom 
came the first spiritual planters of New England. 
They did emphatically " renounce their livings." 
And a striking instance of it, among many others, is 
found in the story, so familiar to us all from child- 
hood, of John Rogers suffering at the stake, in the 
reign of the Bloody Mary, — with his wife and chil- 
dren, as in the picture of our Primers, beholding 
the pains of their faithful husband and father. Nor 
has the spirit died out ; as may be seen in the recent 
acts of the clergy of the " Free Church of Scotland." 



105 



II. They thus resigned their livings for conscience' 
sake. We shall not fully appreciate their characters, 
unless we remember that their consciences were 
neither misguided nor perverted, but enlightened by 
the word of God, and under the influence of hearts 
obedient to its precepts. 

Few, if any, influences have wrought more evil in 
this world, than misguided and perverted consciences. 
At this very day, and in the midst of us, there are 
many, who, " wise above what is written," are doing 
all in their power to convulse society, because their 
consciences are not subjected humbly and obediently 
to the word of God, that only safe guide for this 
wonderful faculty of the human mind. 

Conscience is that judgment the mind of man forms 
of his own character and conduct in the light of 
truth. It must have the truth to guide it ; and un- 
less the heart and the intellect be obedient to the 
truth, it becomes " defiled." This truth is the word 
of God. And that word the Puritans took, most 
emphatically, as their guide. They did all in their 
power to disseminate among men a knowledge of 
the Bible. They translated it. They issued a new 
edition of Tyndale's translation. They disseminated 
the Genevan version. " To the law and to the testi- 
mony," was their motto. The result was, that, in all 
the reforms they advocated, they resorted to the 
Scriptures as their standard and guide. They were 
therefore neither peevish nor malignant in their op- 
position to the demands of James, Mary, Elizabeth, 
and the first Charles. Whatever they could do to 
14 



106 



keep peace, conscientiously, they did do. And if, in 
their reasoning respecting the habits of the clergy, 
they may have, in any instances, gone too far, their 
failings, like those of the good man of the poet, 
" leaned to virtue's side." 

They were not, like some of our over-conscientious 
moral reformers, wise above what is written. They 
did not, in any sense or form, condemn God that 
they might be righteous. They did not call any 
thing a sin which was no sin, especially in respect 
to the existing relations of human society. On the 
contrary, they rendered unto all their dues, — " trib- 
ute to whom tribute was due, honor to whom honor, 
fear to whom fear." They had for their guidance no 
" higher law " than the law of God. And this law, 
in all and each of its revealed forms, whether in the 
Old or the New Testament, taught them not to seek 
ruthlessly and violently to alter the existing relations 
of society, established by human statutes, but to 
strike, faithfully and firmly, at the sins of men com- 
mitted in those relations. This was the rule of their 
actions ; and, in most cases, they acted fully up to 
their principles. If in any case they may be shown 
to have departed from it, it was an error of judg- 
ment, not of the heart ; and it forms a clear excep- 
tion to the general tenor of their course. 

They are not, therefore, to be classed for a mo- 
ment, in our minds, with the modern social fanatics 
of our day, or of any other time ; — those men who 
do so much mischief, and with a number of whom, 
neither the word of God nor the churches of Christ 
are suificiently pure. 



107 



III. The sentiment you have given me, Mr. Presi- 
dent, states that, to save such consciences as I have 
now imperfectly described, they " renounced their 
livings at home, in exchange for the wilderness 
abroad." 

They renounced their livings at home. They went 
first to Holland. Holland ! — to them that hospita- 
ble land. There they lived for many years, respect- 
ed and beloved ; until, mainly for religious reasons, 
they left it, and on the 1st of August, 1620, departed 
from Delft Haven for these shores. You have all 
probably read the affecting and beautiful description 
Morton gives of their departure thence. Morton ! — 
in speaking of whose " Memorial " I cannot forbear 
saying a few affectionate and grateful words in mem- 
ory of his editor, the late Judge Davis. You all have 
known him long and loved him well. Kind, gener- 
ous, conciliating, an admirer of the Pilgrims, he 
ought to be mentioned here and now, for his public 
and his private virtues. 

The minds of the Pilgrims were remarkably and 
gradually prepared for the great crisis in which they 
acted ; as the minds of men usually are for the dis- 
coveries they make in science and the arts, and the 
great effects they produce on the ecclesiastical or po- 
litical happiness of their race. 

They came to the " wilderness abroad." And what 
is the result 1 That which always follows, sooner or 
later, Christian suffering for conscience' sake, — tri- 
umph ! " They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." 
Our own obligations are to pursue their principles, 
to follow their example, to perfect their work. 



108 



I will conclude by offering this sentiment : — 
The present Spiritual Planters of the Churches in 

this Country, — May they emulate the faith and works 

of the first planters. 

The President then gave ; — 

" Religious Intoleratice, — it has peopled a continent ; Po- 
litical Oppression, — it has set a nation free." 

Hon. John P. Hale responded as follows : — 

Mr. President, — I think I heard you suggest 
just now, that you had a great quantity of letters and 
sentiments which you would kindly consider as read, 
and would hand them over to the reporters. Will 
you not do the same thing with me ? 

My ambition is humble, and my purpose is to stand 
before you this evening in a path in which I shall 
have few competitors. I will endeavor to be brief, 
my friends. I regret, Mr. President, that to a senti- 
ment of this character ' you have called upon me to 
respond. It is one that covers the whole field of re- 
ligious duty and political privileges, and while you 
could not assign it to one who more highly appre- 
ciates these great interests, I am sure that among 
those who are present you could have found many 
that would more appropriately express the senti- 
ments which the announcement of such a theme 
calls up in every Pilgrim and Puritan breast. 

As you have assigned it to me, I will attempt the 
task, but I must confess that on this occasion I am 
about to ask a privilege, my friends, and it is the very 
last that an ambitious man ever craves, — and that is 
the privilege of age. 



109 



I see around me young men, ambitious men, that are 
just entering upon that career which I have finished 
and — closed. Pardon me if I endeavor to temper the 
ambition of youth with a little of the counsels of age. 

I confess, that when I was first notified, by your 
kindness and over-appreciation of my poor powers, 
that I should be expected to say a word here, I felt 
exceedingly diffident as to the subject I should select, 
and the manner in which I should treat it. I feared 
that the school in which I had been taught for the 
past eight or ten years was not such as would most 
properly educate me for addressing the descendants of 
the Pilgrims on ground consecrated by their first sac- 
rifices on this continent. 

I feared that some bold tropes and figures with 
which vaulting ambition, upon the floor of the Sen- 
ate, had been accustomed to tickle the ears of the 
multitude, might anywhere else steal in upon me, and 
might, before I was aware of it, obtrude themselves 
upon this assembly inopportunely and inappropriately. 
But I find that I was under a mistake entirely, and 
that the boldest tropes and figures that ever rung 
beneath the dome of your Federal Capitol are tame to 
the conceptions which have been poured forth from 
Pilgrim lips upon Pilgrim ears, to-day. 

We heard there of men whose powers of digestion 
were so capacious that the idea of swallowing Mexico 
at a meal did not alarm them. To-day, in the most 
eloquent language, we have had the Genius of the 
country taking her seat at the centre of magnetic 
attraction, swallowing Chimborazo for supper, and 
kissing sunset with an affectionate embrace. And 



110 



npon a little reflection, after all, it seems to me it is 
highly appropriate. Why should not Young America 
come to maturity first in Old America's house 1 Why 
should not the places where the tents were first 
pitched be those where the young scions should be 
the most sturdy ? 

When shall rhetorical eloquence hereafter plead and 
play a second part in the great game of manifest des- 
tiny, and the sons of the Pilgrims go forward in the 
path which their fathers trod more than two hundred 
years agol I said I was going to assume the priv- 
ilege of age, that of giving advice, and I hope that by 
so doing I shall not trespass upon the proprieties of 
the occasion. 

The sentiment to which you have called upon me 
to respond is religious oppression. Eeligious oppres- 
sion, this day, has peopled a continent. I apprehend, 
much and long as we have dwelt upon that senti- 
ment, that we have not yet appreciated it in all its 
length and breadth. When we are in possession of 
privileges, and in the full enjoyment which they 
give to us, without an effort and without a struggle, — 
when all that has been done, dared, and suffered for 
their acquisition, their maintenance, their support, 
and their transmission to us, is but a legend and tale of 
history, — we are but partially prepared to appreciate 
the tremendous sacrifices by which they were attained. 

Religious liberty, the birthright of every one of us, 
was not born in a day. Generation after generation 
struggled for it. More than four hundred years ago 
the great truth of free and religious liberty was pro- 
claimed in the ears of arbitrary monarchy and a big- 



Ill 



oted church, sounded by the notes of John Wickliff 
on the ear of monarch after monarch, parliament 
after parliament, and thundered at the doors of the 
state and a bigoted church. 

Martyr after martyr, age after age, generation after 
generation, set the seal of their vitality, of their alle- 
giance to this great principle by the sacrifice of their 
lives, and it was not until more than two centuries 
had rolled away that the Pilgrims had come to the 
desperate determination to seek in a foreign land that 
religious liberty for which they strove, and which 
they could not get in the land of their birth. 

Do we appreciate to its full extent the tremendous 
responsibility of such a revolution ? The facilities 
with which we now move from country to country, 
and continent to continent, have done much to lessen 
in our admiration and judgment the realities of that 
fearful measure upon which they determined to venture. 

They left their native land and went to Holland, 
says their historian, because they heard it was a 
place where the hand of industry reaped a successful 
reward ] — because it was a place where political hon- 
ors might be easily obtained, or riches gathered up 1 
No, nothing of that ; but they went there, says the 
simple historian, in the eloquent language of truth, 
" because they heard that in Holland there was relig- 
ious freedom for all men." 

That single fact invested Holland, in their eyes and 
in their hearts, with a charm which no other place 
could possess. They went there " because they 
heard " that there was no earthly barrier, no despotic 



112 



king, no hereditary church, to come in between the 
aspiration of the immortal soul, as it rose up to the 
great throne of eternity, with their highest and holiest 
feelings of devotion. That was what carried them to 
Holland. They staid there until untoward circum- 
stances made them turn their eyes to this continent. 

Allusion has been made to the discovery of this 
continent. Sir, I apprehend that, with all the glow- 
ing eloquence of truth with which that has been de- 
picted before you, full justice has not been done to 
that thought. What was the history of these men ■? 
Generation after generation, they had striven for re- 
ligious and political freedom. They placed spiritual 
freedom before them as the great end and aim and 
object of existence ; it seemed as if it had been settled 
in the counsels of Eternity, that they could not have 
it on the old continent. 

And then when the experiment had been tried, 
then when it appeared as if liberty had been despoiled 
of her power for ever, and as if the fiat of the Al- 
mighty had gone forth that His patience should no 
longer bear with men, it seemed that the Genius of Re- 
ligious Liberty put up one more prayer for one other 
opportunity before it be abandoned for ever ! And 
then, sir, in the counsels of Eternal Wisdom, there 
was revealed to the eye of science, in the solitudes of 
the ocean, a new continent, where they might go and 
try the experiment. 

They came here, and they made the experiment, 
and it was blessed and prospered by that Providence 
whose hand had led them hither. But by and by 



\ 



113 



that spirit of oppression from which they fled fol- 
lowed them here ; and it is a fact that ought to be 
remembered for ever, that that great spiritual revolu- 
tion for which the Pilgrim Fathers had fought, and 
\vhich preceded their political revolution, had been 
so successful and so entire in its victory, and had so 
completely established those rights beyond controver- 
sy or cavil, that when the hour of our political sepa- 
ration came, and the great duty of setting forth our 
wrongs to the world was devolved upon a committee 
of Congress, there was not the least intimation that 
their rights of conscience had been infringed. 

No, thank God ! the Pilgrims had won that revo- 
lution before ! And, sir, it is no impeachment of that 
last revolution to say, that but for the spiritual revo- 
lution which preceded, it never would have taken 
place. Never ! never ! 

Now it is curious to mark the history of the Pil- 
grim Fathers for two hundred years, during which 
period they strove for their rights. I see before me 
some of the venerable clergy. It was the abuses of 
the clergy of England, at that time, which was in the 
minds of the reformers one of the greatest evils of 
which they had to complain ; and of course it was 
deemed important by the crown to shut up the 
mouths of the reformers against the ungodly lives of 
the clergy. 

It is curious to remark, as an index of what the 

standard of clerical morality of that day was, that it 

was solemnly enacted, that, to stop the mouths of the 

Puritan ministers, clergymen should take care not to 

15 



114 

"visit taverns and alehouses often, nor sit long at 
cards or dice, or any other ungodly games." 

Well, sir, they came here, and they subdued a con- 
tinent ; but before they subdued a continent, they had 
something more difficult to subdue than a continent', 
and that was the purposes of bigotry in the heart, of 
a persecuting church backed up by a persecuting 
state. They overcame both of these. 
^ It is worth while, in conclusion, to look for a 
single moment at what were the principles which led 
to their unparalleled success. I contend, and think 
the truth of history will bear me out, that the object 
at which they aimed was one of the great elements of 
their success. That was spiritual freedom. Give 
them that, and they did not care where they had it, 
even if they could enjoy it only upon an ice-bound 
coast, and amid the cruelties of savage warfare. Per- 
ils and contests of that character were thought but 
lightly of, if spiritual freedom might be attained 
at last. 

They brought first an unshrinking courage, an un- 
shaken faith, and reverence for the Divine law, which 
stood unawed before kings and parliaments, declaring 
the convictions of conscience to be the rule of con- 
duct, and that they would be pursued at the risk of 
fire and fagot. 

Those were the elements of their success, — faith, 
courage, and reverence for the Divine law. I do not 
know but I may offend delicate ears by calling the 
principle which gained them the higher law. 

Now, here to-day, Mr. President, as the festivities 



115 



of this celebration are about drawing to a close, it 
seems to me that we can do most fitting honor to the 
memory of those whom we came up here to-day to 
recall, by renewing, in the sanctuary of our hearts, 
vows of eternal allegiance to the great principles of 
the Pilgrims, which have been rendered immortal by 
their constancy, their faith in God and their rever- 
ence for the Divine law. Let us take these and go 
forth with this panoply, and the success and the 
blessing of God which attended our fathers shall at- 
tend us ; and we shall hand down these blessings to 
our children's children after us. 

The next toast was, — 

" The Neiv England Society of New York, — Devoted sons 
of the Pilgrims. We welcome them to the Pilgrim's home." 

The next toast was, — 

" The Neio England Clergy, — True to their high calling, 
at home, and when transplanted to other States." 

The Chair called upon Mr. Osgood to reply. 

Mr. President, — The shadows of evening are fall- 
ing around us now, and the shades of our Pilgrim 
Fathers seem to speak to us at this peaceful hour that 
great text so mightily illustrated by their faithful 
lives : " Work while it is day ; the night cometh, when 
no man can work." The night is near, and you yet 
give me a work to do, which I would at once decline, 
were it not every man's duty to stand by his own 
flag ; and, although the humblest member of a profes- 
sion, he must take the post assigned to him in its 
service. 

You have named with honor the New England 



116 



clergy at home and abroad.' Their home labors have 
already been illustrated by one amply entitled to be 
their representative. Who shall presume to show 
forth their services in other fields ? Truly, they have 
been ever a Pilgrim race, and few lands on earth 
have been unvisited and unblest by their footsteps. 
As educators, they have borne on the wings of every 
wmd the seeds of sound learning as well as of Chris- 
tian faith ; and surely there is not a State in this 
Union whose schools and colleges do not in some 
way show their honorable mark. As pastors, they 
have ever sought to combine the grace of social kind- 
ness with the law of duty, and clothe pastoral life 
with the beauty of holiness. As preachers, their 
word has gone far beyond the sound of their voice; 
and sad would be the loss to America, nay, to uni- 
versal literature, were the records of the New Eng- 
land pulpit to be stricken from the annals of elo- 
quence. As missionaries, their sacrifices have been 
offered in every zone, and they have borne their cross 
beneath arctic cold and tropic heat. China and Cali- 
fornia can join in witness of the power of their la- 
bors ; the Ganges and the Mississippi ahke chant 
their requiem in the flowing waters that murmur by 
their sacred dust. Some of these Pilgrim missiona- 
ries have been more than legislators or statesmen in 
their benign civil influence ; for they have exalted 
savage tribes into nations, by transforming a savage 
talk into written language, and translating the Word 
Eternal into the otherwise perishable words of men. 
Here, at the hallowed place that holds the ashes of 



117 



the first of our New England clergy, let us cherish 
their memory with tenderness, and give thanks to 
our God for the Christian light that has gone hence 
abroad among the nations. 

But, sir, I must not, in this general survey, forget 
the point that belongs properly to me and to the oc- 
casion. I come here to-day as a pastor of a church 
in a neighboring city. I come from New York, with 
a goodly portion of my congregation, to New Eng- 
land, to celebrate the departure of the first New Eng- 
land flock from their home of refuge in that land 
whose people were the founders of New York. A 
minister of Pilgrim lineage, I come from among the 
Dutch of the New Netherlands to enjoy this festival 
in commemoration of- the departure of the Pilgrims 
from the Old Netherlands. However infelicitous it 
would be for me to suggest any comparisons between 
the modern pastor and the ancient one, I am very 
sure that our parish has some afBinity with the old 
Pilgrim church, and parishioners stand around me 
now who have the Winslow and Warren and How- 
land blood in their veins. To prove that there is 
some life in that blood now, I need only say that you 
have a specimen of it before you in the occupant of 
the chair, who is of the Warrens of the Mayflower, 
and you must make up your own minds as to whether 
we are a dead parish or not. 

Starting from a rural retreat in Connecticut to 
come hither, I met there the venerable Dr. De AVitt, 
one of the ministers of the First Dutch Church of 
New York ; and yesterday I shook with the same 



118 



friendly grasp the hand of Dr. Kendall, the revered 
pastor of the First Church in Plymouth. It seemed 
to me as if my unworthy hand were continuing a 
fellowship begun more than two centuries ago in 
Holland, and virtually renewed in every subsequent 
age which has seen the Protestantism of the Dutch 
and English races banded against a common foe. I 
would touch this friendly chord awhile; and I am 
not ashamed to say that it seems to me the worthy 
office of a Christian minister to conciliate communi- 
ties sometimes disturbed by rivalry. It needs no 
great wisdom to show why New England and New 
York should be friends and helpers. 

From the beginning, the relation between the Pil- 
grims and the Dutch was friendly. Our fathers 
found a quiet home in Holland, with full liberty of 
work and worship. If they did not receive any espe- 
cial favors from the Dutch government, they were 
protected in their rights sufficiently to make them 
ask for the continuance of the same protection when 
they thought of planting their colony in New Neth- 
erlands instead of New England. Ought we not 
to be grateful that the Dutch gave the Pilgrims a 
home comfortable enough to enable them to rest from 
their exile and mature their plans, and not so com- 
fortable as to suppress their wishes and plans for this 
Transatlantic shore "? Perhaps they could have won 
more favors from Dutch wealth and patronage, if 
they had more eagerly importuned the ear of afflu- 
ence and power. But, sir, there is one thing that 
Pilgrim blood can never do, — it cannot heg. The 



119 



New-Englander is up to almost any work of labor or 
ingenuity known among men, and can master any 
implement, from the pen to the harpoon, and be 
ploughman or President, as the case may be. But 
his is not the breed that beggars are made of; and 
as it is now in our day of plenty, so was it in the day 
of small things, when our fathers worked hard for 
poor fare among the burghers of Leyden, and gentle 
hands toiled at ungentle tasks. Had their lot been 
far more dainty there, they would not willingly have 
parted with their English birthright, and exchanged 
their mother tongue for a stranger's. Their writings 
expressly declare their attachment to the English 
language, and the heart felt more than the pen could 
tell ; for, as has been well quoted this day, " They 
builded better than they knew." A mighty instinct 
was then at work in the English race, and calling 
them to a mighty future in word as well as in deed. 
The language which Shakespeare and Bacon had so 
perfected was within the providential keeping of that 
little band for its day of glory in this new hemi- 
sphere. In his way, the boy John Milton felt its 
movings as he burnt the midnight oil in spite of his 
father's remonstrance, and even then was dimming his 
young eyes with the dark beginnings of that " drop 
serene" that closed their vision at last. The Pil- 
grims, as they left Delft Haven to plant an English 
colony, knew nothing of that boy or his august 
dreams ; nor did they write great epics like the Para- 
dise Lost, or great arguments for freedom like his 
Defence of the Liberty of Printing. Their heroic 



120 



career was at once their poem in vindication of God's 
providence and their plea for liberty of utterance. 
In due time, their thought found adequate speech, 
and with tongue and pen they have said out those 
two great words already alluded to, " God and Lib- 
erty," in tones of such beauty and power as to win 
the ear of nations to their sound. They have said 
them in our free schools, our town-meetings, our col- 
leges, our churches, our common thought and litera- 
ture. Yes, when the Pilgrims turned their faces 
from Holland to these shores, they brought with 
them on their tongues the seeds of our noblest Amer- 
ican letters ; and with them Edwards, Channing, the 
Adamses, Webster, Story, and the strongest among 
our poets, historians, orators, and divines, under 
God's providential guidance, virtually came. I re- 
member reading, in a work upon the philosophy of 
speech, that a learned scholar of Flanders, one Dr. 
Van Gorp, labored to prove that the Low Dutch was 
the primitive tongue, or the language of Paradise, 
and therefore in good Dutch phrase it was that Adam 
wooed his lovely mate, and Eve lectured her majestic 
lord, — if, indeed, this latter form of domestic rheto- 
ric was ever known in those bowers of primeval bliss. 
Whatever may have been the opinion of the Pilgrims 
respecting the merits of an argument claiming the 
golden age of the past for the tongue of Holland, 
they had some idea that another tongue had promise 
of the golden age to come. Are not our excellent 
friends, sons of the Dutch of New Amsterdam, of the 
same opinion 1 Does the accomplished and learned 



121 



historian, Mr. Brodhead, regret that he is obliged to 
celebrate the virtues of the stout old Hollanders in 
his own handsome English, instead of their own ver- 
nacular ? If the genial President of the St. Nicholas 
' Society, Hon. Ogden Hoffman, had accepted your in- 
vitation, and given us a specimen of his noted elo- 
quence, he would have convinced us of the fact of 
history, that English is but the old Dutch root in 
fuller flower, or the old Teutonic grub risen with 
wings from its chrysalis state ; with wings, we might 
all say, as we listened to winged words, that prove 
the story of the Flying Dutchman to be not fable but 
fact. Right pleasant would it have been to have re- 
turned to him the greeting given by his ancestors to 
our fathers, and to have returned it in words that 
show forth the present union of races once dis- 
tinct, and join the people of New England and New 
Netherlands in one speech and one nation. In 1627, 
the agent of the Dutch colony, De Easieres, was 
welcomed with a flourish of trumpets, after the cus- 
tom of his country, to this colony, then in its infancy. 
The trumpets and bugles of New York have been min- 
gling with those of Massachusetts in the martial mu- 
sic of this festival, and our hearty cheers, blending 
with their notes, speak good- will from Plymouth Rock 
to the stones of the old Dutch Battery of Manhattan. 
Have not our best interests from the beginning 
favored this friendly feeling '? Who can speak the 
name of American commerce, and not celebrate thie 
union between the enterprise and capital of New 
England and New York 1 When, in 1609, the little 
16 



122 



vessel of Henry Hudson first parted the waters of the 
great river that bears his name, and cast anchor un- 
der the heights of the Catskills, that little vessel, the 
Half-Moon, was the crescent symbol of a rising com- 
mercial empire mightier far than the empire of the* 
Arabian prophet. Commanded by an English cap- 
tain and manned by a Dutch crew, Hudson's schooner 
was fit harbinger of that union between Holland and 
England upon the seas which the sons of the Ply- 
mouth and Manhattan colonists were so marvellously 
to consummate in this age. When, in 1614, Adrian 
Block launched his yacht from Manhattan, a mere 
boat of sixteen tons, the first vessel ever built in New 
York domain, there was more meaning than he knew 
in the name he gave it. The " Onrost" — the " Eest- 
less " — was fitting pioneer of that host of ocean ra- 
cers whose flag flutters in every port on earth, and 
whose sail whitens on every wave. The New Eng- 
land merchant and sailor have their part in this great 
triumph, and here at home and in New York are the 
trophies of their power. Turn your eye now toward 
the east, and see the faint line on the verge of the 
horizon which marks the shore of that noted Cape. 
The parting sunlight throws its radiance upon those 
sandy beaches, and makes them seem what they are, 
— : sands of gold, richer in treasure than the sands 
that flow down African rivers or California torrents. 
That narrow strip of land is the nursery of the bold- 
est of the navigators who have shed such honor 
upon the American flag. There the old Norse blood 
has found a congenial home. There our sea-kings 



123 



have been reared, and the waves have rocked their 
cradle, and the winds have sung their lullaby. There 
the sailor-boy has learned to keep company with the 
breezes, and has whistled in tune with the rudest of 
them, until old Boreas knows that voice, and seems 
to remember his brave playfellow, even in the tem- 
pest of his passion. Who shall rehearse the service 
done to the combined commerce of New England 
and New York by the Cape Cod captains, that fear- 
less race, who are ready to be masters of any craft, 
in any sea, whether a fishing-smack, an ocean steam- 
er, or a man-of-war] They have done their part to 
make New Amsterdam more than the rival of the old 
Dutch city, and to raise up at the mouth of the Hud- 
son a mercantile metropolis beyond the fame of 
Venice or of Tyre. In a way which a good Chris- 
tian cannot condemn, the triumph of Holland in her 
proudest day has been renewed by her American 
child, and, in the speed of our peaceful merchant- 
ships, stout Admiral Tromp again sweeps the seas, 
and does not need to nail a broom to his masthead 
to tell England and the nations of his triumph. Who 
does not bless the benign, the pacifying mission of 
commerce "? How often has Mars blown his trumpet, 
and angry nations have flown to arms, when the 
fleets of our peaceful commerce have hung out in 
every sail their flag of truce, and they have thrust 
their stout bowsprits between the combatants like the 
staff's of commissioned heralds, crying out, as they 
interpose their august authority, " We forbid the 
fight ! " • What herald of the cross is not ready to 
say, " Amen ! " 



124 

Think me not obtrusive in saying a word of the 
friendly relations between New England and New 
York in the political, literary, and religious sphere. 
There may be some remains of an old grudge, grow- 
ing out of the fact that the Dutch West India Com- 
pany and the Plymouth Company at first claimed 
jurisdiction over nearly the same territory ; and when 
the former relaxed the full claim over New England 
to the forty-fifth degree of latitude, it was not willing 
to yield any territory south of Cape Cod. But that 
old feud is happily settled, and now both parties, not 
as English or as Dutch, but as Americans, have all and 
more than all their original claim. Throughout the 
great crises of subsequent history, in the main, friend- 
ly relations have existed. When the Duke of York 
gave his flag and name to New Amsterdam in 1664, 
Massachusetts was little disposed to lend her aid to 
his arms, and Nicolls and Hyde called upon the Old 
Colony in vain to swell the invading squadron. Our 
people liked that Stuart race quite as little as did the 
Dutch, and were quite as glad as they were when a 
prince of Holland, William of Orange, fixed the 
Protestant faith and the hope of constitutional liber- 
ty upon the throne of England and her colonies. 
Then, in time, came the new union of the colonies, 
in resistance to British aggression, and Toryism found 
quite as much fault with the obstinacy of the Dutch 
republicans of New York as of the Massachusetts 
Puritans. There was a good feeling between the two, 
when, in 1754, the Northern States united at Albany 
in a general convention against French invasion, and 



125 



Franklin's plea for union was so well seconded by 
one of the Smiths of New York. Ten years after- 
wards, the same feeling came out in its fulness at the 
First Continental Congress, when in New York the 
eloquence of our Otis found an echo so electric in 
the patriotism of her Livingston. Not to the British 
crown, but to the new banner of American national- 
ity, the honest Dutch language seemed to strike its 
flag, and in the chief Dutch church the preaching 
was finally fixed in the English tongue only on the 
eve of that first Congress, in which Otis called upon 
the people to talk no more of " New-Yorkers " or 
" New-Englanders," for all are " Americans." To- 
gether, the sons of the Netherlands, New England, 
and Virginia have built up the power of New York, 
and the blood of all the Old Thirteen States flows in. 
the electric heart of the Empire City. Why should 
not the sons of Holland be proud of the result, and 
rejoice in eclipsing their ancient metropolis by the 
glory of this, her American daughter 1 Why not say 
that the founders triumph in all the successes of the 
colony thus founded 1 Why not say that the old 
patriots, the De Witts, the Barneveldts, the Egmonts, 
have come back in the Jays, the Hamiltons, the Clin- 
tons, of the new republican State ; and that the learn- 
ing of Grotius, the elegance of Erasmus, the patience 
of Brandt, have been more than restored by the ju- 
rists, scholars, historians, poets, and orators that add 
literary honors to her commercial renown 1 

Once in a while, indeed, a little of the old feud 
between Massachusetts and New York breaks out. 



126 



The sons of St. Nicholas smoke their Dutch pipes 
together, until the air is somewhat too cloudy for 
clear perception, and Jonathan, with his children, 
eats so much parched corn about the 22d of Decem- 
ber, that the corn mounts to his brain in the spirit of 
over-valorous boasting. Yet in the long run the two 
are the best of friends, and could not get along with- 
out each other, either in trade or in society. It 
seemed to me, a few days ago, that I saw in our busy 
Broadway a just emblem of the actual state of feel- 
ing between the leading elements of our metropolis. 
St. Nicholas has, you know, built him a great palace, 
the finest in the world of its kind, it is said, and there 
he entertains guests by the thousand, with the cheer 
of princes. But mark how tolerant he is. He al- 
lows the Irving House to stand on his right, and the 
Prescott House on the left, in a catholicity of temper 
quite honorable in a potentate of his years and hon- 
ors. So at his right hand sits Washington Irving, 
whose roguery St. Nicholas is willing to forgive, in 
consideration of the sterling good-nature which 
makes every place to him like his own Sunny side, 
and forbids his hurting any man's feeling or any 
Knickerbocker's good name more severely than in 
a sham-fight of playful wit, that breaks no bones. 
There, too, at his left, beneath the Saint's burly 
shoulder, sits Prescott, — who, with Bancroft and 
Sparks, completes the honored trio of living New 
England historians, — in token that the old grudge is 
forgotten, and New York can be proud of the pride 
of Massachusetts. 



127 



Excuse me, Mr. President, for all this rambling 
remark, and allow me the credit of wishing a hear- 
tier mutual appreciation between New England and 
New York. The New-Yorkers are not slow to honor 
your institutions and your men. How hearty was 
the welcome always given in New York to your 
Webster ! — never more hearty than when over the 
grave of Fenimore Cooper he spoke words of tender 
remembrance, that have since returned to many 
minds in connection with his own obsequies. How 
enthusiastic was the greeting given to your Everett 
so lately, when thousands from every land on earth 
thronged to hear those words of generous appeal for 
the stranger in America, which proved so eloquently 
that in our national annals patriotism and humanity 
should walk hand in hand ! Will you not return the 
sentiment, and appreciate New York fairly, even at. 
the cost of some pet prejudices ? A very large num- 
ber of the sons and daughters of New England have 
come hither from New York to enjoy this festival, 
and are glad to hear the friendly sentiment just read 
from the chair. I beg you to believe that we care 
something for your good-will, and that the swarm 
from the Old Colony that has built its hive in New 
York claims something of the affection sometimes 
monopolized by the honey-bees of Boston. Here, at 
the ancient mother's feet, we are all children, and the 
younger as well as the older daughter retains her 
birthright and asks her share of its love. 

Do not believe that New York is the heartless 
seat of worldliness and ostentation sometimes so de- 



128 



scribed. Believe that there is much of cordial good- 
will, much of sincere piety and charity, in our city. 
If we have more than our share of vice and misery 
which visit us from every quarter of the world, ap- 
preciate, I pray you, the energy and principle that 
hold these social dangers in check, and restrain for- 
eign violence, whilst they rebuke and dethrone mu- 
nicipal corruption. It sometimes seems to me as if 
certain critics of our ways and manners in the East 
judged us as some unskilled spectator judges the 
barn where the farmer is plying his winno wing-ma- 
chine. He stands at a distance, blinded by the chaff, 
and sneezing at the tingling dust borne by the wind 
to his sensitive nostrils, whilst he is not near enough 
to see the golden grain that falls quietly into the gar- 
ner. Be careful to appreciate what is good in New 
.York, if not for its own sake, at least for our sake. 
Pilgrims from your shrines, we have found there a 
hospitable and cherished home, for which we owe 
gratitude to those who have made us strangers no 
more. Honor every leading community in the land, 
and you honor yourselves, for the seed from your 
field has part in the plenty that cheers every portion 
of our great domain, and New England is everywhere. 
A parting word of brotherly greeting, and I take 
my seat. Happy indeed is this assembly ! We all 
know each other well, for, however strangers in name, 
we have been brought up in the same way, in the 
same schools and churches and homes, upon the 
same bread of heaven and water of life. We have 
been boys and girls together, and together to-day 



129 



we can rise up and call our mother blessed, and re- 
joice in her smile. As I see this bright parterre be- 
fore me now, I should not wonder if some young 
men, in describing this festival to distant friends, 
should quote the words of Governor Winslow's let- 
ter, more than two centuries ago, which named among 
the native products of the new colony, " Abundance 
of roses, white, red, and damask; single, but very 
sweet indeed." Some happy men here present know 
very well that the roses of Plymouth do not cease to 
be sweet when they cease to be single, and their fra- 
grance is the charm of the Pilgrim's home wherever 
he dwells. How many of you have come back to 
New England to find the light of your eyes ; and if 
perchance any wanderer has fallen a victim to some 
fair maiden of Dutch lineage, or some brilliant dam- 
sel of the Old Dominion, he accounts for the fact by 
saying that she had a New England look, and secures 
to him a New England home ! Common joys, com- 
mon trials, we all have shared. Almost all of us 
have sometimes had to struggle with hard fortune ; 
and we have all found, if we have only kept a firm 
hold, the wrestler that has for a time lamed us has 
left with us a blessing, that has proved him to be a 
good angel in disguise. Peace, our peace. Heaven's 
peace, be with this Old Colony and our loved New 
England ! We cannot render or pray for any greater 
blessing for our common country, than for the prog- 
ress of those principles and institutions that have 
given the Pilgrim Fathers their name among the 
founders of states and the exemplars of religion. 
17 



130 



I close, Mr. President, by giving a sentiment that 
sums up the friendly thoughts that I have so poorly 
tried to set forth in my cursory words : — 

" Let us all say from Plymouth Rock : God's bless- 
ing on our young America ! — the mingled blood of 
all nations flows in her veins ; no drops of that blood 
should be more generous, more loyal, more youthful, 
than the drops that descend from the old Pilgrim 
heart." 

The President then gave the following toast, which was 
much applauded : — 

" Neiv York, the Emporium of Foreign and Domestic 
Trade, — With one hand she grasps the commerce of the 
West, and with the other, like Venice, espouses the ever- 
lasting sea." 

The next toast was, — 

" Boston, — Distinguished alike for education, philanthropy, 
and enterprise." 

The Hon. Benjamin Seaver, Mayor of Boston, felt obliged 
to return to the city, and had left before this sentiment was 
reached. 

The next regular toast was, — 

" The Press, — The best index to Pilgrim's Progress." 

Mr. Fuller of New York, having been called on to respond 
to this toast, remarked that, for some reason which he could not 
explain, the Press were usually, of late, assigned a place at the 
close of the order of exercises. He had no speech to make. 
From the number of reporters he saw present, he presumed 
that the proceedings of the day would be given fully to the 
world. But he would not say more than to return thanks in 
behalf of his brethren of the press for the compliment which 
had been paid them. 



131 

Several gentlemen were present from whom speeches were 
expected, but time would not allow. The following regular 
toasts were read by the President, and responded to by the 
band : — 

" The 3EUtia, — The arm that protected the Old Colony in 
its weakness ; that gives dignity and grace to the State in her 
strength." 

" Cape Cod, — The right arm that sheltered the Mayflower. 
The ocean attests her gallantry and her enterprise ; the courts 
of justice, her learning and her worth." 

Replied to by Mr. Hinckley, of Barnstable. 

The following volunteers were read : — 

" James Otis, — His head was cracked by a British officer, 
but his intellect cracked the British empire." 

" 3Iassachusetts and California, — The first and thirty-first 
editions of the ' Pilgrim's Progress.' " 

" The Day we celebrate, — May it ever be cherished by the 
sons and daughters of freedom, as the day when their fathers 
escaped from tyranny." 

" The Ardent Spirits brought from Delft Haven to these 
shores in 1620, — an extract from the Mayflower, — the right 
sort for a Jubilee like ours of to-day." 

At a little past seven, the company separated. 

In the evening m^ny of the residences of the citizens were 
brilliantly illuminated. Court and Main Streets particularly pre- 
senting a beautiful appearance. The Boston Brigade Band 
discoursed most eloquent music in the Town Square, from eight 
to twelve o'clock, and a fine display of fireworks was also made. 

During the evening, Mr. Warren, the President of the day, 
held a levee at his residence on Main Street, which was honored 
by the presence of many distinguished strangers. 



APPENDIX. 



LETTERS IN REPLY TO INVITATIONS BY THE 
COMMITTEE. 

Boston, June 25, 1853. 
Dear Sir : — 
I have had the honor to receive the invitation of the Committee 
of Arrangements to attend the proposed Celebration by the Pilgrim 
Society on the 1st of August next. It would afford me the high- 
est satisfaction to be present at the commemoration of an event 
which has had, and is destined for all time to have, a powerful and 
beneficent effect upon the character and destiny of mankind. 

The occasion must be interesting to all, but intensely so to those 
who have the privilege of claiming the Old Colony as their birth- 
place. 

I regret to be compelled' to say, that the state of my health will 
deprive me of the pleasure of accepting the invitation which you 
have so kindly extended. 

I am, very respectfully, yours, 

Peleg Sprague. 
EiCHARD Waeren, Esq., Chairman, Spc. 



New Haven, June 27, 1853. 
Dear Sir : — 
I beg you to present my thanks to the Committee of Arrange- 
ments for the approaching Celebration in your venerable town. 
Should it be in my power, I should derive high gratification from 
being present at that time ; it is quite probable, however, that I may 
find it necessary to go in another direction, to visit family friends. 
Your very obedient servant, 

Theodore D. Woolsey. 

RiCHAED WakKEN, EsQ. 



133 

Brookline, June 28, 1853. 
Sir: — 
The present state of my health will, I fear, prevent me from 
participating in the Celebration of the Pilgrim Society on the 1st 
of August ; but should it be in my power to do so, I shall gladly 
avail myself of your obliging invitation, for which I beg you and 
the other gentlemen of the Committee to accept my acknowledg- 
ments. 

I am. Sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, 

T. H. Perkins. 
KiCHAKD Wabren, Esq., Chairman. 



Cambridge, June 28, 1853. 
Dear Sir : — 
I have the honor to acknowledge an invitation to attend the Cel- 
ebration of the Pilgrim Society on the 1st of August. But expect- 
ing to be absent on a journey at that time, I must regret the 
necessity I am under to decline it. 

Very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

James Walker. 
Richard "Warren, Esq., Chairman. 



Brown University/, June 29, 1853. 
My dear Sir : — 
I am greatly obliged by your invitation to attend the Celebration 
on the 1st of August. Should it be in my power, I will gladly 
accept of it. I am, however, obliged to go to the western part of 
New York about the middle of July, and fear that it will not be 
possible for me to return in season for the occasion. I honor the 
stones and take pleasure in the dust of Plymouth, and the more so 
because she keeps us reminded of those glorious days from which 
we date the origin of civil and religious liberty. 

I have the honor to be. Sir, 

Yours, very truly, 

F. Wayland. 
RiCHAHD Warren, Esq. 



134 

Williams College, June 29, 1853. 
Dear Sir : — 
I am greatly indebted to you for your kind invitation to me to 
be present at the Celebration of the 1st of August, at Plymouth. 
No one can honor the memory of our fathers more than I do. 
Whatever incidental faults they may have had, theirs was the true 
spirit, and only as that shall be perpetuated and diffused is there 
hope for the country and for the vv^orld. I should rejoice to join in 
any celebration that vi^ould tend to keep alive that spirit, but regret 
to say that I shall not be able to be with you on that occasion. 

With great respect, yours, 

Mark Hopkins. 

KiCHARD WaEEEN, EsQ. 



Franlfort, July 1, 1853. 
My dear Sir : — 
I have had the honor to receive the invitation which you, as 
President of the Pilgrim Society, was pleased to convey to me by 
your note of the 23d ultimo, to attend their Celebration of the 1st 
of August, as the Anniversary of " the Embarkation of the Pil- 
grims from Delft Haven in 1620." 

Indeed, Sir, I feel myself honored by your remembrance of me 
on such an occasion, and by your kind invitation. I know that I 
could sympathize with you, and enjoy the commemoration of 
your Pilgrim Fathers, with all my heart. They were a peculiar 
and wonderful race of men, to be remembered with pride and 
gratitude and reverence. 

I very much regret that the distance, and the thousand little dif- 
ficulties in the way, prevent my acceptance of your invitation. It 
only remains for me, Sir, to offer to you and the Society my very 
sincere acknowledgments for the honor done me. 
I am, with great respect, 

Yours, &LC. 

J. J. Crittenden. 
Hon. Richard Warren. 



135 



Cambridge,' July 1, 1853. 
Dear Sir : — 

I have had the honor to receive the kind invitation of tlie Com- 
mittee of Arrangements to attend the Celebration by the Pilgrim 
Society of the Anniversary of the Embarkation of the Pilgrims 
from Delft, on the 1st of August. It would give me great pleasure 
to be present on so interesting an occasion, but my absence from 
home at that time will prevent my attendance. 

Please to express to the Committee my acknowledgments and 
thanks for their invitation, and accept the assurance of the respect 
and sincere regards of 

Your obedient servant, 

Jared Sparks. 
KiCHARD Warren, Esq. 



Charleston, July 2, 1853. 
My DEAR Sir : — 
Your very kind invitation to attend a meeting of the descendants 
of the Pilgrims has safely reached me. I am equally affected by 
the privilege of participating in this Celebration, and by the remem 
brance of those friends who made my youth what it was. Declin 
ing health, with the disposition to gratify my family, ai'e the mo 
lives which in a few hours Avill carry me awfiy. I am just em 
barking for Europe with m}^ youngest daughter, but when the Is 
of August arrives, the anniversary of the greatest political even 
of this vast empire will be full in my thoughts, and the remem 
brance of those who in earlier days commanded my highest I'e 
spect and warmest affection will occupy my heart. Plave the 
goodness to offer at the- festive board in my behalf: — 

" The passengers in the Mayflower, who two hundred and 
thirty-three years ago held, on the Rock of Plymouth, America's 
first Convention in the cause of Liberty." 
With great esteem and regard, 

I remain your obliged and obedient servant, 

B. HuGEB, M. D. 



136 

Auburn, July 4, 1853. 
Dear Sir : — 
I feel that it is a great honor to be invited to go up with the 
Pilgrim Society to Plymouth, on the occasion of their great Anni- 
versary, and I regret exceedingly that my engagements are such 
as to deprive me of the instruction and pleasure which an accept- 
ance would secure to me. 

Be pleased to express to the Association my thanks and my 
apology, and believe me, dear sir, most respectfully, your humble 
servant, 

William H. Seward. 
RiCHAED Waeeen, Esq., Chairman. 



Plttsfield, July 5, 1853. 

Dear Sir : — 

I feel very much obliged by the kind invitation of the Commit- 
tee of Arrangements of the Pilgrim Society to attend the Cele- 
bration of the Anniversary of the Embarkation. I fear that it will 
hardly be in my power to be present, fixed as I am for the sum- 
mer at the western edge of the State. It would have given me 
much pleasure to be with you, had the old territory of the Massa- 
chusetts kept within any reasonable limits ; but Plymouth Rock is 
so much nearer sunrise than Saddle Mountain, that one feels like 
a Pilgrim at the mere thought of the journey between them. 

I suppose toasts are all done with in these times, or I 'would send 
you one. I think the Judge will be ahead of me in the pot- 
tery line, or I would have made something out of this : — 

" The good people of Delft, — They were known to all the rest 
of the world by their ugly mugs ; but we shall always remember 
them for sending us a cargo of Chosen Vessels." 

Yours very truly, 

O. W. Holmes. 



July 8, 1853. 
Honored Sir : — 
Your official communication, dated June 10th, inviting the Pas- 
tor and delegates of the Pilgrim Church at Southwark to be pres- 
ent, and to unite in the Celebration of the Embarkation of the Pil- 



137 



grim Fathers at Delft Haven, on the 1st day of August, reached 
its destination on June 27th. 

The Rev. John Waddington is at this time in the South of 
France, seeking restoration of health and strength under the Divine 
guidance, for both his partner in life and himself. 

On account of his absence, therefore, and time not allowing of 
any communication with him in the interval between the receipt of 
your letter and the date of this reply, it falls upon me to acknowl- 
edge, on Mr. Waddington's behalf, how deeply he will feel the 
token of your respect to him, as the pastor of a flock whose ante- 
cedents in church history prove them to be more intimately allied 
to the faithful band of exiles to your distant shores, than any relig- 
ious society can lay claim to, in this particular location, wherein 
they sought statedly to worship their God, in conformity to his 
will, so nearly as they could discern it in his revealed word. 

Impracticable as compliance with your invitation, which we 
cannot too highly estimate, is, under all the circumstances, I may 
be allowed, I trust, to remark upon the interest which has been 
raised and warmly reciprocated since our first approach to the late 
representative from your country to ours, in the person of the Hon- 
orable Abbott Lawrence. That gentleman's sympathies were awa- 
kened at once, for he seemed to feel that his country derived and 
would reflect additional glory from the information it was our privi- 
lege to impart to him at successive interviews, or by writing. In- 
deed, he was so alive to the value of what he learned, that he gen- 
erously gave command that he would not be denied to Mr. Wad- 
dington when it was possible he could see him ; he is consequent- 
ly ever in our grateful remembrance, and followed by our most 
respectful salutations. 

Besides Mr. Lawrence, we have been favored with frequent in- 
terviews with other influential friends from the United States. In 
1851, we were specially honored by a visit of inquiry and research 
from Dr. L. Bacon of New Haven, and the Rev. Seth Bliss, ac- 
companied by the Rev. Hovey of Boston, and Mr. Morse of 

New York. The result gave satisfaction alike to them and to us. 
And since that opportunity, a correspondence has several times 
passed between our pastor in particular and some of your divines 

18 



138 



in whom he has excited a keen interest, either personally or by the 
transmission of copies of unpublished original letters with other in- 
formation relating peculiarly to our common ancestors, the Pilgrim 
Fathers and their immediate successors. 

For the measure of success which has followed my own efforts 
in helping to extend a knowledge of the inestimable worth of that 
illustrious band of exiles whose embarkation at Delft Haven the 
Pilgrim Society of Plymouth is about again to commemorate, I 
cannot but indulge and express grateful emotions, under the ever- 
present conviction, that it was my Heavenly Father who sustained 
and directed me through a period of such intense application and 
of such weighty responsibility. My aspirations and my heart are 
often on the other side of the Atlantic, but Providence has herein 
put an interdict upon me : seventy-five years past admonish me 
that another and " better country " demands my incessant solici- 
tude. That Mr. Waddington may never visit your shores, is far 
from improbable, except that his ailing companion at home is an 
impediment. 

In the name of the church in Union Street, Southwark, and their 
pastor, I am, honored Sir, your greatly obliged servant, 

Benjamin Hanbury, Senior Deacon^ 
138 Blackfriars Road. 

Mr. W.'s private address is No. 9 Surrey Square, Southwark. 
To THE President of the Pilgrim Society, Plymouth, Mass. 



EUicott''s Mills, Maryland, July 12, 1853. 
Dear Sir : — 

I beg to return you my kindest thanks for the invitation of the 
Pilgrim Society to partake in their Celebration on the 1st of 
August. 

My movements are too uncertain to enable me to promise my- 
self the pleasure of being with the Society on that occasion. If 
it should so fall out, however, that I may be able to allow myself 
this gratification, I shall be most happy to profit by the opportunity. 
But whether present or not, I hope you will believe that I take a 
lively interest in the subject of your celebration, and justly esteem 



139 

the descendants of that sturdy Puritan chivalry whose exploits will 
find a worthy remembrance on that day. They honor their an- 
cestry, not only with their lips, but in their lives. 

With the expression of my highest respect for the Society, and 
my thanks to the Committee, I am, my dear Sir, very truly yours, 

John P. Kennedy. 

Richard Wabren, Esq., Chairman of Committee of Arrangements^ ^c. 

New York, July 12, 1853. 
Dear Sir : — 
You do me no more than justice when you speak of me as " one 
who delights to honor the fathers," and it would afford me great 
pleasure to express my sense of their personal worth, and the great 
work which they achieved for future ages " on the spot where they 
landed." But my engagements are such, that it will not be conven- 
ient for me to accept the invitation with which you have honored me, 
and I must respectfully decline. Hoping for that personal acquaint- 
ance to which you allude, I am, my dear Sir, very truly yours, 

E. H. Chapin. 



Philadelphia, July 15, 1853. 
Sir : — 

Nothing short of advanced years, now numbering eighty-two, 
would discourage me from taking a journey to Plymouth, for the 
purpose of joining your intended Celebration of the coming Anni- 
versary of the Embarkation of the Pilgrims at Delft Haven in 
1620. 

For your invitation thereto, please to accept my thanks ; and the 
assurance of my regret at being obliged to decline it. 

I am the lineal descendant of an early immigrant, who arrived 
at Boston in 1630 ; probably with Winthrop. The bones of this 
great-great-grandfather, Edward Breck, repose in a graveyard at 
Dorchester. Many of his children and children's children were 
born in Boston ; among them I am privileged to call Boston my 
native town : and I may claim, likewise, the right to boast of being 
allied almost to the brave and pious and enterprising company, 



who, under Carver, promulgated the grand principles of republi- 
canism, which have, by their blessed influence, been the main 
cause of this nation's rapid growth, and quiet, steady progress 
from the small beginning in your city to its present greatness. 

Penn's Constitution, equally wise, and equally free, must, never- 
theless, yield the merit of priority, and perhaps originality, to the 
Mayflower compact. 

Governor Carver undertook to plant his colony, he tells us, for the 
glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith. Penn took 
charge of his Province, he says, " for the Lord's sake ; to raise a 
people who shall be a praise in the earth for conduct, both in civil 
and religious liberty, and to show men, by his frame of govern- 
ment, the way to freedom and happiness." 

Those two virtuous leaders laid down principles of government, 
so broad in constitutional freedom, and so acceptable to every 
colonist, that it was but an easy step from colonial to independent 
rule. 

Please to present me, affectionately, to my highly respected 
friend, Thomas H. Perkins, should he attend your festival. Many 
years ago, when I was in Congress, I saw Mr. Everett occasionally 
at my brother-in-law's, Mr. James Lloyd's. He will, however, 
scarcely remember me. In any event, I shall feel flattered, if he 
will allow me (small as our acquaintance was) to offer him the as- 
surance of my most distinguished regard. 

For yourself. Sir, please to accept my renewed thanks and cor- 
dial respect, 

Samuel Breck. 
Ei CHARD Wakren, Esq., Cliairman of the Committee of Arrangements. 



Barnstable, July 18, 1853. 
My dear Sir : — 

I regret that the continuance of ill health will prevent my attend- 
ing the " great Pilgrim Celebration." 

It will be a great entertainment, indeed. The assembling of the 
descendants of the pioneers of human rights ! How vast the oc- 
casion, and how noble the lineage ! 



141 

I am happy, yea, proud, to be of such a race ; and gladly would 
I be a participant in the family scene were my physical condition 
equal to the task. 

Yours, very truly, 

Zeno Scudder. 
KiCHARD Warren, Esq., Plymouth. 



Washington, D. C.,Jult/ 18, 1853. 
My dear Sir : — 
The President has received your kind and flattering invitation to 
participate with the Pilgrim Society, on the 1st of August, in com- 
memorating the Anniversary of the Embarkation of the Pilgrims 
from Delft Haven in 1620, and directs me to express to you his 
deep regrets that pressing public engagements compel him to deny 
himself the pleasure of accepting it. 

With high regards, your obedient servant, 

Sidney Webster. 
EiCHARD Warren, Esq. 



. Providence, Juli/ 20, 1853. 
My dear Sir : — 
Upon my return from a short absence this day, I found your 
kind invitation, on behalf of the Committee of the Pilgrim Society, 
to be present at the Celebration on the 1st of August. Thanking 
you and the Committee most sincerely for the kind invitation, I 
much regret that business engagements of some importance in 
Cleveland, Ohio, will deprive me of the honor as well as pleasure 
of participating in a celebration which I hope will be perpetuated 
to the latest posterity. 

With great respect, your obedient servant, 

John Whipple. 
BiCHARD Warren, Esq. 



Boston, July 20, 1853. 
My dear Sir : — 
I hav? delayed your letter of the 23d ultimo, in the hope that I 
might see my way clear to accept your kind invitation. But I am 



142 



reluctantly compelled to decline it. The labors and confinement 
of the Convention have left me in an indifferent state of health, 
and in a condition to require absolute rest, and abstinence from 
every thing in the shape of intellectual excitement. 

Yours truly, 



George S. Hillard. 



ElCHAKD WaKREN, EsQ. 



Charleston, S. C, July 23, 1853. 
My dear Sir : — 

I have purposely postponed replying to your own of the 23d of 
June, because I continued to hope, even to the last moment, that 
circumstances and duties might yet permit me to join you on the 
1st of August. Both conspire to deny me this privilege ! But 
no combination can suppress the feelings which the occasion is 
so well calculated to inspire. I have always regarded the land- 
ing of the Pilgrims as the true foundation of republican liberty ; 
and I have never doubted that the choicest freight of the May- 
flower was the sentiment which one hundred and fifty years after 
found its embodiment in the Declaration of Independence. We 
should never have heard of the tea being thrown overboard, if 
the piety of the Puritans had not furnished the authority. And 
the battle of Bunker Hill might never have been recorded, but for 
the spirit which animated your ancestors on the Rock of Plymouth, 
and now gives character to our common country throughout the 
world ! It is not the right to fight, but it is the right to think, 
which makes a nation ^ree. 

Permit me to offer you : — 

" The American people ! North and South, and East and West ! 
tjiey sometimes differ in adjusting their ' family matters,' but they 
are sure to hQ friends in the presence of an enemy." 

With many thanks for your kindness, I am, dear Sir, very faith- 
fully, your obedient servant, 

Alfred Huger. 

Richard Warren, Esq., Pres. Pilgrim Society, Plymouth, Mass. 



143 

NeiD York, July 23, 1853. 
Dear Sir : — 

My friend, Mr. Everett, had already sent me a kind invitation to 
the Anniversaiy at Plymouth, but I explained to him that I am 
obliged to leave the United States by the Arabia steamer, which 
sails on Wednesday next. 

I assure you it would have given me great pleasure to have at- 
tended such a meeting, where I should have had an opportunity of 
seeing many persons for whom I have a great regard, and who 
will be assembled to commemorate an event of high historical in- 
terest, and to express their sympathies in a glorious cause. 
Believe me, dear Sir, your obedient servant, 

Charles Lyell. 
KiCHARD Warren, Esq. 



Worcester, Mass., July 25, 1853. 
My dear Sir : — 

I had the honov to receive, some days since, your most kind 
letter, inviting me to attend the anniversary commemoration by 
the Pilgrim Society of the " Embarkation of the Pilgrims from 
Delft Haven, in 1620," and I have delayed its acknowledgment 
only that I might feel an assurance of being able to participate in 
the observance of so deeply interesting an occasion. I have now 
greatly to regret, that the state of my health, and that of my 
family, discourage the hope of this enjoyment. 

You do but justice to my sentiments in believing, that, as a de- 
scendant from an Old Colony ancestry, I hold in highest rever- 
ence the history and character of the fathers of New England. I 
should go to Plymouth, as the pilgrim to the tomb of the Prophet, 
that I might offer my devotions on the altar of their virtues and 
their great sacrifices. I know of no oblation more grateful to 
their memory, than this spontaneous gathering of a late posterity 
on the spot first consecrated by their landing to religious freedom, 
and this outpouring of the heart in joyous commemoration of that 
firmness of principle and heroism of purpose which sent them hither. 

With a sense of high personal obligation to the Committee of 
Arrangements for the honor of their kind remembrance of me, I am, 
dear Sir, most faithfully, their and your obliged and obedient servant, 

Levi Lincoln. 
Richard Warren, Esq., Presidevt of the Pilgrim Sorifity. 



144 

Tremont House, July 26, 1853. 
Sir : — 
I much regret that arrangements which it is beyond my power 
to aher will take my party and myself from Boston before the 1st 
of August. The meeting of the Pilgrim Society is one which, 
with reference alike to its subject and to the character and emi- 
nence of those likely to attend, I should have felt myself much 
honored by being permitted to assist at. 

I have the honor to be. Sir, your very faithful servant, 

Egerton Ellesmere. 



WasJdngton, July 26, 1853. 

Dear Sir : — 
I thank you sincerely for your invitation to me to attend the 
Celebration of the Pilgrim Society on the 1st proximo, and I very 
greatly regret that my official engagements render it impossible 
for me to be present with you on so interesting an occasion. 
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

C. Gushing. 
EiCHARD "Warren, Esq., Chairman. 



Lowell, July 26, 1853. 

Dear Sir : — 
I received yesterday your favor of the 23d, conveying to me an 
invitation from the Committee of Arrangements to be present at 
the Celebration of the Pilgrim Society on the 1st of August. 

Under fitting circumstances, I should have felt extremely happy 
in being present at the Anniversary of the Embarkation of the 
Pilgrims ; but a recent affliction will allow me only to offer my 
sincere acknowledgment for the honor done me, and my best 
wishes that the celebration may serve to perpetuate the principles 
of the " Fathers of New England." 

Respeptfully, your obedient servant, 

Tappan Wentworth. 
E.ICHABD "Warken, Esq., Plymouth. 



145 

Gardiner, Me., Juhj 2G, 1853. 
Dear Sir: — 

I have omitted hitherto to acknowledge the receipt of your oblig- 
ing favor of the 7th instant, in the hope that I might be able to 
accept the obliging invitation with which you have honored me, to 
attend the proposed Celebration at Plymouth on Monday next. 

It is now quite certain that it will not be in my power to do so. 

Few things could afford me more pleasure than to unite with the 
distinguished citizens of New England who will then assemble, 
in commemorating the services, the sacrifices, and the virtues of 
those heroic and Christian men who laid so deep and sure the en- 
during foundations of all our civil and religious institutions. 

For ever honored be their memory, for ever cherished be their 
principles. 

I beg you and the Committee to receive my grateful acknowl- 
edgments for the honor of the invitation, and believe me to be, 
with great respect, your obliged and obedient servant, 

Geo. Evans. 

BiCHARD Waeren, Esq., Plymouth. 



Sunnyside, July 27, 1853. 
Dear Sir : — 
The invitation with which I have been honored by the Commit- 
tee of Arrangements of the Pilgrim Society, to attend their ap- 
proaching commemoration, has just been received. While I feel 
deeply and gratefully this mark of their consideration, I regret that 
the state of my health, which obliges me to repair to Saratoga, will 
prevent my being present on the very interesting occasion. 
I remain, dear sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

Washington Irving. 
BiCHARD Warren, Esq., Chairman, Sfc. 



Cincinnati, July 28, 1853. 
Gentlemen : — 
Having been informed by the Hon, Bellamy Storer, that you 
have been pleased to honor the New England Society of Cincin- 
nati bj' an invitation to our President and Board of Directors to 

19 



146 



be present on the deeply interesting occasion of your annual 
celebration of the day, so dear in the memory of every New-Eng- 
lander and every true American, it devolves on me as their 
Secretary to acknowledge your courtesy, and to inform you, that 
in the absence of most of the members of our board, now^ visiting 
their early New England homes, I have forwarded your invita- 
tion to our President, Robert Hosea, formerly of Boston, and our 
Vice-President, John Swasey, formerly of Salem, Massachusetts, 
who are among the most enterprising merchants of the " Queen 
City of the West," through whom, we trust, our Society will be 
truly represented on the patriotic day we all would rejoice to 
commemorate by our presence among sons and daughters so wor- 
thy of their fathers. 

Allow me to propose, for the New-Englanders of the Buckeye 
State : — 

" The true sons of New England's worthy sires can never 
forget their native homes, so sacred to the memory of their an- 
cestors." 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
Daniel C. King, 
Corresponding Secretary of the New England 
Society of Cincinnati. 
To THE Committee or Aeeangesients, ^-c. 



Amherst, July 29, 1853. 
Dear Sir: — 
Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to be able to ac- 
cept the invitation of the Pilgrim Society to participate in the 
commemoration of the Anniversary of the Embarkation of the 
Pilgrims from Delft Haven, on the 1st of August, 1620, and to 
express my veneration of the men, whom the providence of God 
directed to this New World, and inspired with energy and wisdom 
and foresight to lay the foundations of a structure, which for the 
strength and beauty and grandeur of its proportions, in a moral, 
social, and political view, has even now exceeded the highest con- 



147 



ceptions of their warmest imagination, and which, under the guid- 
ance of that same Providence, is exerting an influence unpar- 
alleled in the history of the world upon the material and moral 
interests of our race. But I may not enjoy that pleasure. 

Accept my thanks for your kindness, and permit me to annex a 
sentiment : — 

" The Embarkation of the Pilgrims in 1620, — The dawn of 
a new era in the advancement of civilization, the knowledge of 
true liberty, and the spread of a pure Christianity throughout the 
world." 

Believe me, very truly and cordially yours, 

Edward Dickinson. 
EiCHARD Wakren, Esq., Chairman of Committee, ^c. 



West Point, Juhj 30, 1853. 
My DEAR Sir : — 

I have just received your communication of the 28th instant, in- 
viting me to participate in the commemoration of the " Embarka- 
tion of the Pilgrims," which is to take place at Plymouth on the 
1st of August. 

I regret, my dear sir, that I had not known of it a day or two 
earlier, as I have just returned from Trinity College Commence- 
ment at Hartford, and from lack of time must relinquish the pleas- 
ure of joining with you in preserving the memory of this impor- 
tant act of the Pilgrims. 

To me the event would have been peculiarly gratifying, and 
also would have afforded me an opportunity of renewing my ac- 
quaintance with many who were very kind to me on my visit in 
search of information and material for the painting now in the 
Rotundo. 

I beg you, my dear sir, to present my sincere regrets to the 
Pilgrim Society, and also my hearty wishes for its welfare, and the 
success of the object it has in view. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

Robert W. Weir. 
To BicHABD Wabben, Esq. 



148 

Washington, July 27, 1853. 
Dear Sir : — 
It is announced in the papers that the New England Society of 
Boston, and others, are to celebrate the Embarkation of the Pil- 
grims from Holland, on the 1st of August. This notice is recent, 
and hardly leaves time for any appropriate action of our New 
England Society of the Metropolis, to meet and provide for an 
official representation, on that interesting occasion ; but as the Rev. 
Ashbel Steele, one of the descendants of the Puritans, now of this 
city, is about to go to Plymouth, and to be present at the ceremo- 
nies of that day, I think he may with propriety represent this 
branch of the great New England Association which is scattered 
abroad over our land. May I ask the favor of you to present Mr. 
Steele to the President of the parent Society, in that assumed rep- 
resentative character. 

Mr. S. has been some time engaged in collecting and elaborating 
materials for a fuller memoir of Elder Brewster than has yet 
appeared, — being led to the work from the fact that his wife is 
a lineal descendant of the sturdy old Puritan hero. 

I do not know who the President of the Society is, in Boston or 
Plymouth, or I should have thought it proper to address this note 
to him ; but I trust you will excuse the form it takes, and enable 
Mr. S. to present himself in the right quarter. 
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

D. A. Hall, 
President {perhaps Ex- President, of the New Eng- 
land Society of Washington. 
To THE Hon. Edwakd Everett. 



Madison City, Wisconsin, 21 July, 1853. 
Dear Sir : — 
I have just received the letter by which, on behalf of the Com- 
mittee of Arrangements of the Pilgrim Society, you invite me to 
take part in the ceremony commemorative of the embarkation at 
Delft Haven of the founders of Plymouth Colony ; and in which, 
while alluding to my researches in regard to the Pilgrims in FIol- 
land, you do me the honor to say, that the Society is desirous to 
hear more of these men from me. 



149 



I regret that I cannot be in Plymouth on the 1st of August ; it 
would be most grateful to my feelings to meet those assembled to 
do honor to men who gave up the comforts of home rather than 
sacrifice a principle ; — it would be pleasant, with them, to retrace 
the wanderings of the Pilgrims, and from the Rock of Plymouth go 
back in imagination to the little church of Austerfeld, under the 
shadow of which the first Governor of Plymouth was born, and 
before the unchanged altar-table of which he was baptized. 

Since the publication to which you refer, I have twice revisited 
Leyden and Delft Haven, and added something to the small stock 
of facts before gleaned. Among other new documents, I have in 
my possession a letter, written by John Robinson to the magis- 
trates of Leyden, dated Amsterdam, 12 February, 1609, asking 
permission to come during the ensuing month of May with his 
congregation of one hundred English men and women to reside in 
that city. This letter gives us light upon two points heretofore 
unsettled ; first, the time of Robinson's migration to Leyden, sup- 
posed by some to have been in 1608 ; and secondly, the num- 
ber of those who had joined him in exile. 

Other documents throw light upon other matters, but nothing 
changes the conviction, heretofore expressed, that the position of 
the Pilgrims in Holland was one of suffering and privation, — of 
continued persecution on the part of the English Government, un- 
alleviated by any sympathy from those more favored English, who, 
in Amsterdam and in Leyden, had received churches from the 
magistrates. 

The records of the English Reformed Church at Amsterdam, — 
in which the forerunners of Robinson and some of his own con- 
gregation became in the end merged, — the records of this church, 
as far back as 1608, speak of the Brownists, who were then com- 
ing there, as " writhers of libels and of scandalous articles " ; 
and again, travelling out of their record, they chronicle with 
unconcealed pleasure a mishap which befell the unfortunate exiles. 
It seems that these forerunners of Robinson had raised money to 
build a church in Amsterdam, and the English record, after men- 
tioning this, continues : " The before said Brownists' jireacliing- 
house (as they call it) being half reddy, God sent his strong 



150 



messengers from Heaven and cast it flat down unto the ground ; 
which to many was a saying and a teaching that they did not 
build upon the Rocke, the sure and right foundation. Mat. vii. 
24 ;1 Cor. iii. 14." 

" Retrospection," says an old writer, " is precious, inasmuch as 
it giveth us wise teachings for the present." And when we look 
back upon the lowly and humble position of the fathers of our Re- 
public, — persecuted for opinion's sake, — arrested in England, — 
imperfectly protected abroad, — spurned by their fellow-country- 
men there whom fortune favored, — are we not taught lessons of 
charity towards those who differ from us .'' Are we not also 
taught that we dishonor the Pilgrims, when we forget to honor 
either labor, or devotion to principle ? 

The Pilgrims, I have said, were imperfectly protected in Hol- 
land. No government has been more unscrupulous than that of 
England in violating the neutrality of other countries, and in 
seeking to carry its own persecutions into other lands. It was in 
vain that one of the brightest luminaries of English science, 
John Locke, sought refuge in Holland ; he was hunted down 
by English spies and diplomatists, and obliged to fly. So was it 
with our own Elder Brewster. Let us not, however, cavil with 
the Dutch. They did more than any other nation had then done 
to protect freedom of opinion. Holland and Switzerland were the 
two asylums of those who were persecuted for their convictions, and, 
without the rallying-point of Holland, it is probable that Robinson's 
congregation would have been dispersed ; and Miles Standish and 
Winslow and Winthrop, and the other bright names of Plymouth 
Colony and of Massachusetts history, be known only as actors of 
more or less renown in the drama of the English Commonwealth. 

We cannot fix limits to our debt of gratitude to the Dutch Re- 
public, for the asylum and the protection she afforded. How can 
we better show that gratitude than by expressing on the Rock of 
Plymouth the sympathy of the sons of the Pilgrims for that other 
Republic, Switzerland, now " persecuted even unto death," men- 
aced with the extinction of her nationality, for extending the 
same hospitality, for fulfilling the same duty, towards others, who, 
for conscience' sake, have become pilgrims and exiles. 



151 



Mindful of the parallel between Switzerland in 1853, and Hol- 
land while sheltering the Pilgrims, permit me to propose as a 
sentiment : — 

" The Swiss Republic, — Menaced by despots for having exer- 
cised a right, fulfilled a duty, and practised a virtue, — to be sus- 
tained by all for whom rights duty^ and virtue are not empty 
names." 

I have the honor to be, dear sir, your faithful servant, 

George Sumner. 
Hon. Richard Warren, Chairman of Committee of Arrangements, <J'c. 



Wasliington, July 26, 1853. 
My dear Sir : — 

I very much regret that I am obliged to decline your invitation 
to be present at the commemoration of the anniversary departure 
of the Pilgrims from Delft Haven, on their adventurous voyage to 
a distant and unknown land, for the noble purpose of seeking shel- 
ter from persecution, and a home where civil and religious liberty 
could be enjoyed. 

I regard the event you propose to celebrate as among the most 
interesting in the history of nations, both in its character and con- 
sequences. Were succeeding generations to be unmindful of the 
stern virtues and severe hardships of their Pilgrim forefathers, 
they would be unworthy of the blessed heritage which has come 
down to them from this source. 

I assure you I sincerely regret that any circumstances should 
deprive me of the pleasure of being present at the celebration of 
an event, so memorable in our national annals, and so worthy of 
being commemmorated through all succeeding time. 

I am, with great respect, your obedient servant, 

W. L. Marcy. 
RicuARD Warren, Esq., Plymouth, Massachusetts. 



Lunenburgy 28 July, 1853. 
My dear Sir : — 
The regret for losing the celebration of the embarking of our 
Plymouth Pilgrims at Delft Haven, two hundred and thirty-three 



152 



years ago, will be much alleviated to me, at least, by the knowl- 
edge that you will be there next Monday. As a member of the 
Pilgrim Society, I would heartily attend ; and it seems almost strict 
duty for the Historical Society to reverence whatever inheres in 
the gentis incunabula nostrcz, or even may be only an adjunct. . 

Having entered my seventieth year, I am lately become very 
penurious of my time, and as it would cost me four days to par- 
take in the glory of that festivity, it must be given up. Yet only 
one hour later departure of the last train of cars in the forenoon of 
Monday would permit my reaching Boston seasonably from here. 
Still you can so much more acceptably fulfil my service, that I 
rejoice at the opportunity afforded for renewing your enjoyment in 
bestowing honor on the true-hearted exiles. You will not, I am 
sure, omit the occasion of rendering due acknowledgment to our 
friend. Rev. Joseph Hunter, who, more than all other persons 
since Governor Bi'adford, has illustrated the story of their origin. 
What none of them thought of, their condition before leaving Eng- 
land, we wanted most to know. In chief, the unrivalled merit of 
Brewster, earliest, as well as one of the best qualified, among the 
laics, of assertors of religious freedom. When one recurs to 
the wretchedness inflicted on her Secretary, Davison, by the per- 
Jidy (how well justified is that phrase !) of Queen Elizabeth, which 
even in the narrative of Hume is plain enough for an eye of tol- 
erable power of inspection, he will see the cause that drove Brew- 
ster into seclusion from court, after qualifying him for all honora- 
ble service, if consistent with good conscience. Did you see a 
new Life of Davison come out within eight or ten years ? It is 
monstrous, that two octavos should give us little more than two or 
three pages of novelty ; and if the publication escaped your eye, 
it was ordered for the Boston Library, I remember, by my motion, 
when a fairer portion of the irradiation of Elizabeth's day was 
looked for. 

To Brewster is due, beyond controversy, the glory of vindicating 
sober Puritanism, not as a clergyman bred up to controversy, still 
less as a man of the world who could see in no distant future the 
prevalence of his cause, the first layman who opened free com- 
munication with Heaven, without asking permission of his civil 



153 



sovereign. Oar two Governors, Bradford and Winthrop, whose 
births occurred within a few days of each other, are both deserving 
of very great and nearly equal approbation as conscientious states- 
men, thoroughly imbued with rational dislike of the formalities in 
church service, yet came into being only when Brewster had 
terminated his career of public service ; and indeed all Bradford's 
accomplishments in human politics or divine letters he may well 
seem to have derived from such parental instruction. 

You will know, my dear sir, how to excuse this outpouring, 
when you think that I have just laid down our latest volume, first 
oi fourth series, that contains the full evidence of his devotion to 
our purposes by my friend Hunter. Remembering the fascination 
of Cavendish's Life of Cardinal Wolsey, which gave distinction to 
such a humble hamlet as Scrooby, I confess the perusal of this 
rewritten History of the Founders of New Plymouth quite as 
highly exhilarates me. I dare say that George Sumner may be 
at the feast, and he can give the freshest intelligence as to the 
modern state of that dovetailed canton of Yorkshire, Lincoln, and 
Notts. But agreeable as may be whatever he can tell, from a 
three days' visit to the neighborhood, the degree of general knowl- 
edge of the local concomitants must be far superior in my London 
friend, who was born and brought up in that vicinity. 

Further I will not impose my tediousness on you, not even by 
inscribing a toast, or sentiment, as it is termed, if our Massachu- 
setts Historical Society be honored by any mention ; but leave to 
you, as our representative, all the service and the glory that would 
break down your assured friend. 

James Savage. 
Hon. Edward Evebett, Summer Street, Boston. 



DelfsJiaven, in South Holland, Kingdom Netherlands, 
July 18, 1853. 

Hon. and worthy Sir, President of the Pilgrim Society, formed 

to cherish the memory of the founders of New England, — 
Burgomaster, Aldermen, and Councillors of the City of Dclfs- 
haven, have the honor to communicate you, they received your 
letter dated 23d June, 1853. 
20 



154 



However, they have only a faint remembrance of the emigra- 
tion in 1620 from their port to America of some Englishmen, 
with prayers and good wishes of an old clergyman, who recom- 
mended them to the care of Providence, while he was detained by 
weakness and old age from taking the journey. Nevertheless, 
during the two centuries since their departure, the remembrance 
remained in the interesting work of the Independent Magazine. 

It is an agreeable duty to Burgomaster, Aldermen, and Coun- 
cillors of Delfshaven, to present you the thanks of their assembly 
for the affection still existing at the glorious nation of the United 
States of North America for our country, and the remembrance 
of Delfshaven, which they left to walk upon the glorious way 
which made North America the admiration of the whole world. 

However nobody of us can profit by the amicable invitation ex- 
pressed in your letter, we return our sincere thanks for your hon- 
orable attention, wishing Providence will give you its best gifts 
over the good land of your habitation ; and the remembrances 
which unite North America with our dear native country may 
conduce to augment the relations between both the lands, by mu- 
tual friendship and estimation. 

With sentiments of great respect, we subscribe ourselves, 
Your most obedient servant, 

G. W. HiLST, 

Burgomaster of Delfshaven. 



HYMN. 

By Epes Sargent. 
(Tune, Old Hundred.) 



Not from a dark and angry sky 
The Pilgrim band are forced to fly ; 
Behind them is the summer shore. 
The doubt, the gloom, are all before ! 



155 

No roll of drum, no gun's salute, 

To public fame their parting bruit ; 

But broken prayers and sobs are given, 

As Faith looks up, through tears, to Heaven. 

Yet larger wealth than e'er knew wreck 
Is trusted to that narrow deck ; 
Yet in that poor and fragile bark 
God sees a mighty empire's ark. 

Lord ! as to them, to us extend 

The care that looketh to the end ; 

Them thoii didst guide through adverse ways, ■ 

O, save us from our prosperous days ! 



HYMN OF THE PILGRIMS, 

Departing in the Matflowee from Pltjiouth, England, 
Sept. 6, 1620. 

By Isaac McLellan. 

(AiK, America.) 

Twilight's celestial sheen 
Fades on the glimmering scene. 

Fades soft away ; 
England's bright cliffs of gold 
Fade, as Eve's banner's fold. 
O'er the blue heavens unrolled, 

Darkens the day. 

Grouped on the slippery deck, 
Still on that fading speck 
Lingers our gaze ; 



156 

Manly eyes swim with tears, 
Maiden hearts sink with fears. 
As the shore disappears 
In the blue haze. 

Foreheads all gray and old, 
Foreheads with locks of gold. 

Cluster around ; 
Brows wear the gloom of care. 
Hands are clasped as in prayer, 
Murmured sighs in the air 

Waft their sad sound. 

Sailing across the deep, 
Heart-sick, we can but weep, 

Exiles from home ! 
O'er the horizon's line. 
See, its last light doth shine. 
Scarce seen above the brine. 

Hid by the foam. 

Farewell, dear native land ! 
Farewell, paternal strand ! 

England's fair shore ! 
Hills with great oaks o'erspread. 
With their dark pines o'erhead. 
Ne'er may our loving tread 

Visit you more ! 

Flower-filled, happy dales. 
Pastures, and rural vales. 

Sylvan retreats ! 
Ne'er in your soft expanse 
May our dear children's dance 
Through your green thickets glance 

In summer heats. 



157 

Mossy roofs, where entwine 
Ivies and eglantine 

Like a fair tree, 
Church, with thy modest spire 
Glancing in twilight's fire. 
With thy sweet singing choir, 

Farewell to thee ! 

Churchyard so gray and old, 
Tablets grass-grown and cold. 

Where our dead rest, 
Oft in our evening strain 
We '11 bedew thee again 
With the heart's sacred rain, 

Far in the west ! 

'Mid the dark, sombre woods, 
'Mid the mild solitudes. 

Whither we tend, 
God keep us pure and free ! 
God will our guardian be ; 
Unto Him bend the knee, 

Till life shall end ! 



REMARKS OF GEORGE WATSON. 

Mr. President : — I am not a public speaker, as you well 
know, and being now in the second quarter of my eighty-third 
year, I cannot expect to become one. But I am glad to be here 
this day in my native town, which I left sixty-six years ago, 
and commenced my pilgrimage through life, on foot. I have 
made some brief reflections pertinent to this occasion, which I 
have penned, and which I will read, if I have your permission. 



158 



" Contingere portum, et funem contingere, mild contingii.'''' — 
To arrive in port, and to lay hold of the rope, concerns me. 

This beautiful sentence, in which there is but one verb, contains 
three important contingencies of life. 

It is one of the brightest gems of the Roman language. Veni, 
vidi, vici, — the celebrated laconic letter of the all-conquering 
Julius Csesar to the Roman Senate, — is not to be compared with it ; 
for this was an effusion of a mind flushed with victory, and it well 
became the destroyer of his race, — himself soon after destroyed 
for his criminal ambition. But the sentence I have quoted 
breathes a philanthropy for all mankind. 

Mild contingit, — it concerns me, — it concerns you, Mr. 
President, — it concerns all who are here to celebrate the Em- 
barkation from Delft Haven of our heroic fathers and mothers, 
when they were about to cast themselves upon the stormy Atlantic, 

We know, for we have read, how their pious hearts were moved 
in prayer to God, that he would graciously vouchsafe to them a 
happy arrival at their desired haven. But from that desired ha- 
ven they were diverted, — and by the providence of God they 
were brought into this goodly harbor, to plant Here the seed of 
an empire ! 

The historic eye beholds the unfading Mayflower safe at anchor 
at yonder beach point ; there being no friendly hand on shore to 
throw them a rope. 

Mr. President, the contingencies of the Latin proposition con- 
cern all who embark on the voyage of life. Let us then fer- 
vently pray, that each and all of us may at last arrive in the 
blessed haven, and lay hold, not of the rope, but of the Hope, 
of eternal life ! 

Memoir of George Watson, of Roxbury. 

I was born in Plymouth, April 23d, 1771, and within gun- 
shot of " Plymouth Rock," which was then the property of my 
father, the late John Watson, Esq., who was the second President 
of the Pilgrim Society, — and he was one of the original associ- 
ates and the last resident survivor of the " Old Colony Club," the 



159 



germ of the Pilgrim Society. I am a direct descendant, of the 
fifth generation, from George Watson, one of the early Pilgrims, 
who came in the Ann, in 1622 ; he was a merchant, and was a 
Counsellor in the government of the Colony. He died in 1690, at 
the advanced age of eighty-nine years. I am the oldest living de- 
scendant of the Plymouth Watson family, excepting my venerable 
cousin, Mrs. Priscilla Watson Cotton, now living in her native town 
of Plymouth, in the comfortable enjoyment of health and of her 
faculties in a remarkable degree. She is a descendant of the 
fourth generation from the Pilgrim George Watson. By our ma- 
ternal ancestors, we are descendants of the fifth generation from 
the mother of Peregrine White, and the Governor Edward Wins- 
low, our mothers being sisters. 



REMARKS BY DR. CHARLES T. JACKSON. 

Last evening the northeast corner of Coales Hill, near the Lin- 
den-tree, was struck by lightning. 

In ancient times, this incident would have been looked upon as 
a consecration of the spot by the gods. 

It is certainly worthy of note that the burial-place of the first of 
the Pilgrim Fathers should have been visited by fire from the 
heavens on this first Celebration of the Anniversary of the Em- 
barkation of the Pilgrims from Delft Haven. 

If the thunder-stricken wolf of Rome and Ariosto's bust were 
consecrated by the thunder-bolt, should we not regard the graves 
of Pilgrims as thus consecrated anew by this act of Providence ?. 

" Know that the lightning sanctifies below 
Whate'er it strikes ; yon ' hill ' is doubly sacred now 1 " 



160 
LETTER FROM HON. NATHAN APPLETON. 

Pittsfield, July 28, 1853. 

Dear Sir : — 

I am favored with the invitation of the Pilgrim Society to attend 
the Celebration of the Anniversary of the Embarkation of the Pil- 
grims on the 1st of August. I regret that it will not be in my 
power to be present on the occasion. 

The emigration of the Puritans to America is one of those 
events which change the condition of nations, if not of the world. 
The inestimable boon of freedom of religious opinion may be 
traced to this event in an especial degree ; for although the Puritans 
themselves were originally unwilling to grant to others what they 
claimed for themselves, their principles led to this result, and bore 
this fruit in their descendants. All honor, then, to the pioneer 
Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth ! 

I hope this occasion will not pass without some measures being 
adopted for securing and preserving Plymouth Rock, as another 
and more worthy means for the resort of future generations. To 
this object I shall be most happy to contribute. 

I am, very respectfully, your very obedient servant, 

Nathan Appleton. 
William L. Russell, Esq., Secretary, §^c., SjX. 



LETTER FROM HON. ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 

Legation of the United States, London, 
May 27, 1852. 
My dear Sir : — 
I regret to learn from you that the proposed monument to the 
memory of those illustrious, I may say with truth immortal, men and 
women who founded Plymouth Colony, has made " slow progress." 
I entertain and cherish the liveliest interest in every thing con- 
nected with their history, and I cannot doubt that every New Eng- 
land man throughout our Union, when the question is finally laid be- 



161 



fore him, of erecting a monument that shall mark the spot where 
his ancestors landed, and where the first written constitution was 
promulgated and established, will respond to an appeal from the 
" Pilgrim Society.'* I hope an appeal will be made by that Soci- 
ety without delay, through the various New England Societies 
now established in many of the States of the Union, and that all 
the New England States may be addressed upon the subject. My 
respect and gratitude increase daily for the company that came 
to our dreary coast in the Mayflower, and I feel it a duty to do 
something to perpetuate their memory. I will thank you to sub- 
scribe my name for the sum of $ 500, in case the Society conclude 
to proceed with a work, which, I will venture to say, has been too 
long delayed. 

I have the honor to be, dear Sir, 

Very sincerely, your obedient servant, 

Abbott' Lawrence. 
William J. Russell, Esq., 

Rec. Secretary of the Pilgrim Society, Plymouth, Mass. 



PLYMOUTH ROCK IN GARLANDS. 

[From the Christian Register, August 6.] 

Though a little one side of the direct route, we could not resist 
the attraction which drew almost every body to the birthplace of 
the " Old Colony," on Monday last. So, pursuing a zigzag course 
over three railroads, we arrived at Plymouth about 10 A. M. ; at 
Plymouth, not as the venerable town usually is, free from bustle, 
serene and quiet, but Plymouth in a state of pleasurable excite- 
ment, Plymouth with a doubled population, Plymouth in holiday 
attire, shining and smiling, brilliant and beautiful, with the flash- 
ing uniforms of the military and engine-men, the bright floral and 
other decorations, the streets thronged with people, the doors and 
windows of all the houses opened, as if the whole place was, for 
the time being, one great home, crowded with children of a larger 
*>! 



162 



and a smaller growth, bent upon rejoicing together, and having a 
grand " occasion." And what was the occasion ? A capital 
motto among the flags and festoons of one of the houses — hardly 
a dwelling being without its ornaments of bunting, evergreen, and 
wreaths of flowers — will answer. It ran thus : " The First of 
August. — Forefathers' Day thawed out." That told the whole 
story. Yielding to a good suggestion, the Pilgrim Society resolved 
to have one anniversary at a genial season ; so, changing from 
December 22d, the date of the " Landing at Plymouth," they se- 
lected August 1st, the date of the " Embarkation at Delft Haven," 
for commemoration. Energy, liberality, hospitality unbounded, 
skill, and taste had made all preparations; and the 'day, preceded 
by the showers of the night before, to lay the dust and wash out 
the town, dawned a summer's day, slightly overcast, and duly 
tempered, just suited to the purpose. The details of the celebra- 
tion, and reports of what was said and sung, we have no room for, 
but will just jot down a few things that are as pictures or melodies 
now in the memory. 

And first, a word more about the ornamental part, for it deserves 
it. We have seen a good deal of decorating for festivals of all 
kinds, but in our judgment, for appropriateness, almost if not en- 
tirely without exceptions, — for the doing just enough and not too 
much, — the decorating at Plymouth was of peculiar excellence. 
Nothing inconsistent, extravagant, gaudy, or puerile — quite likely 
to intrude as blemishes on such a scene — caught our eye ; whilst 
arches, festoons, banners, and inscriptions were symmetrical, and 
rich, and graceful, and right emblems for the hour. Amidst the 
profusion of well-ordered and chaste display, one omission — an 
instance of the grace of letting alone — was, we thought, very 
touching and impressive. To a somewhat ancient house, over- 
shadowed by a grand elm, and almost hidden behind the growth 
of vines and shrubbery, nothing was done, — nature being fittingly 
left unadorned, — since the simple sentence over the gate, " We 
will keep their memory green^^'' was all that art ventured to do. 
Leaping, for the moment, from the garlands and streamers of the 
day, with their historic notices, proverbs, and stanzas, pointing out 
noted localities hallowed as dwelling-places of the fathers, or tell- 



163 



ing of the father's trials and virtues, — the illuminations of the 
evening turn into a fairy realm the venerable municipality. The 
windows beaming with lambent light, the colored lamps suspended 
among the umbrageous trees, with the rushing and flashing rockets 
that ever and anon, like lightning gleams, revealed the gay con- 
course listening to the fine music in the Square, taken in connec- 
tion with absence of all disturbing noises and confusion, made a 
night to be remembered as a brilliant dream, and gave us an ideal 
and quite glorified Plymouth. When we add to this, that — more 
than the latch-string out — every door seemed wide open with 
friendly invitation, and that to some at least sleep was wafted on 
the airs of a pleasant vocal serenade, the reader will pardon a little 
enthusiasm in our rhetoric. Indeed, one, if a moment thoughtful, 
was made rather serious and subdued by the all-pervading kindly 
feelings and the general delight. 

o o o 

But we are beginning at the end, and must retrace our steps. 
In the morning there were religious services in the First Church. 
These consisted of a hymn, written for the occasion, by Rev. E. 
H. Sears ; a prayer by Rev. James Kendall, D. D., the venerable, 
honored, and beloved clergyman, now more than fourscore years 
of age, who is the successor in office, as he has been in fidelity, of 
the Pilgrim pastors ; the singing of Mrs. Hemans's grand lyric, 
" The breaking waves dashed high " ; selections from Sci'ipture, 
by Rev. G. W. Blagden, D. D., of this city ; a second hymn ; and 
the benediction. 

After waiting a weary while for the special train from Boston, 
— which proved to be specially slow, instead of what it started for, 
an " Express " with only two stops, — but which arrived at length 
in over-due time, in the neighborhood of high noon, the procession 
got formed. It was long and large, — so long and large that it gath- 
ered up most of the people ; which fact, together with another fact, 
that the ladies preceded it to the tent, left it towards the last of 
the route almost destitute of the essential accompaniment of spec- 
tators. However, with music and escort, it traversed most of the 
streets, marched reverently by the " Rock," — crossed the " Town 
Brook," — ascended the hill to the pavilion, — within whose can- 
vas walls not less than twenty-five hundred ladies and gentlemen 



164 



were seated, at about 3 P. M. We have nothing to say about the 
dinner as such, except that it was what reasonable people expect 
on such an occasion, pleasant in its array, and seemingly plentiful, 
but not intended to appease ravenous hunger, delight the epicure, 
or make eating a very palatable enjoyment. Our position, a nice 
one for what we went for, was a little out of the reach of attend- 
ance, and the company were the " waiters " ; therefore we mag- 
nanimously conclude, that even the lack of as many cups of cold 
water as a thirsty dozen craved, was a provincial and local desti- 
tution. But we soon had the feast, — the only one worth caring 
about. The Chair was filled by Mr. Richard Warren, President 
of the Pilgi'im Society, who discharged his duties energetically, 
frankly, and in a manner that showed how thoroughly his heart 
was in the work, making a pleasure out of an arduous position. 
With brief allusions to the locality, the history of the past, and the 
nature of the gathering, he welcomed the company, announcing, as 
the material and substantial portion of his address, the design re- 
cently formed, and pai'tly executed, of collecting funds to rear a 
monument to the Pilgrims on " The Rock." He stated that 
$ 6,000 had already been contributed in Plymouth alone, and read 
a letter from Hon. Moses Grinnell of New York, offering gener- 
ous aid. Later in the afternoon, Mr. Warren announced the re- 
ception of a letter from Hon. David Sears, subscribing $ 500, and 
reserving the right to give as much more as he pleased. 

Governor Clifford was the first speaker introduced. For its 
warmth of feeling, just sentiments, finished style, its lights and 
shadows, or alternations from the grave to the gay, without violent 
transitions or loss of dignity, indeed, for all the qualities of an elo- 
quent and effective speech, this was a noble effort ; proving that 
our chief magistrate must by universal consent be regarded as an 
accomplished orator. But the tone and doctrine of this address 
were the things to be commended. It was religious and reveren- 
tial to the past, and sought no future of greatness or prosperity, 
which did not spring from the principles and was not inspired by 
the spirit of the Pilgrims, — no progress that was not a Christian 
progress. The condemnation of the reckless, conquest-loving, 
" manifest destiny " doctrine was very fine, and almost solemn, as 
a timely warning. 



165 



Hon. Edward Everett was next called out. After a felicitous 
preface, he traced and pictured in his own best style — which is 
saying enough certainly — the providential preparation made for 
the discovery and settlement of the New World, and then spoke 
of the results of that great event as they are and are to be. He 
presented with glowing eloquence a brilliant and ever-enlarging 
prosperity for the republic, in passages of elaborate rhetoric, such 
as he is a master of. We were glad he too — though declaiming 
so grandly of " progress " — took care to recognize distinctly the 
religious element and faithfulness to Christian principles. We are 
not of the number of those who think the passion for enlargement 
needs any stimulant in this land ; and so we confess that we 
prized more Mr. Everett's closing remarks, in which he so admi- 
rably described and rebuked the irreverent sceptical credulity, the 
Sadducean philosophy of the times, and insisted on the union of 
faith in God with civil liberty. If his splendid, gorgeous vision of 
the future is only attended by the sanctifying safeguards he de- 
picted, none will care how soon it is a reality ; but without those 
safeguards, the blessing would be its indefinite postponement. 

The Hon. Charles Sumner gave us another finished address, in 
which he held up the Pilgrims as an example of both the persecu- 
tion and the triumph awaiting all reformers. He caught these 
words of noble cheer from Plymouth Rock : — 

" New occasions teach new duties ; Time makes ancient good uncouth ; 
They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth : 
Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires ! "We ourselves must Pilgrims be, 
Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea." 

The fourth of the speeches which were most marked for their 
substance or the sources from which they came, was the character- 
istic — alike for its exceeding good humor and profound serious- 
ness — speech of the Hon. John P. Hale. He playfully insisted 
on assuming the privilege of age, and, as his own career was 
completed, of giving a little counsel to young or ambitious politi- 
cians yet in the field. He had feared that the school wherein he 
had been for eight years might have unfitted him for this sober oc- 
casion, and that some of the bold tropes which had served the as- 



166 



piring in the Senate might unawares slip from his tongue. But 
his anxiety was over ; for the boldest figures that ever rang beneath 
the dome of the Capitol were tame in comparison with what had 
come from Pilgrim lips addressed to Pilgrim ears ! We had heard 
of the genius of the country swallowing Chimborazo for supper and 
kissing sunset with affectionate embrace ! On reflection, it might 
be quite appropriate, for where should Young America come to 
maturity first, if not in Old America's house ? Passing from this 
humorous strain, Mr. Hale, in noble, manly tones of strong emo- 
tion, described the long struggle for religious liberty, and ably ar- 
gued that the winning of the revolution for spiritual freedom by the 
Pilgrims had won the later revolution for civil freedom ; and so he 
affirmed, for all good success, their faith, courage, and reverence 
for the Divine law were essential. 

The excellent remarks by Hon. Charles W. Upham of Salem, 
Rev. Samuel Osgood of New York, and of other gentlemen, as 
well as the "sentiments" generally, we should be glad to refer 
to, but the room and time to do so are not at our command. 

The day at Plymouth — we love to take such days, as they offer 
themselves, in a generous and grateful, and not a critical spirit — 
was, almost without exception, a grand day, — a day suggestive of 
significant contrasts between the past and the present, wherein the 
memory of the fathers came, demanding the gratitude and appeal- 
ing to the hearts and consciences of the children. We believe it 
could not have been to any serious mind a mere holiday, and trust 
that the remembrance of it will be more profitable than the remem- 
brance of seasons that are only festive seasons. It was pleasant 
as its golden hours flew by ; may it be true to many that a blessing 
crowned their departure, and that they witnessed the birth or the 
confirmation of true purposes and right principles, — that some- 
thing of the Pilgrim's conscience and faith, to conserve our fairer 
.... . . . . ^ 

civilization, was gained by standing on the Pilgrims' Rock ! 



167 
THE PLYMOUTH FESTIVAL. 

[From the New York Evening Mirror, August 2.] 

In so far as we have received account of the festival doings of 
the descendants of the Pilgrims, at Plymouth, they have been wor- 
thy of the occasion. More magic words could not ring out among 
New England's hills and valleys, or, far beyond, through the 
newer and broader States of the Union, from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, than " the Pilgrims" and " Plymouth Rock." They are 
words linked to a people and spot consecrated in the hearts of mil- 
lions, — a people and spot hallowed for ever by heroic history, and 
endeared by numberless less public, but not less tender, brave, 
beautiful, and sublime traditions. 

These words, " the Pilgrims " and " Plymouth Rock," are 
watchwords to all the host of proud and grateful descendants, who, 
scattered in widening circles from the ancestral seed, now form the 
nerve and sinew of a mighty nation, — a nation the freest on earth, 
the noblest balanced, the most intellectual, and the most vigorous. 
Other roots of the Republic there are, — deep, strong, and noble 
roots ; but the Pilgrim root is_ deepest, strongest, and noblest. 
Planted in a sterile spot, by the rock-side in the wilderness, with 
no cradle hymn but a trustful prayer to God and the winter moan- 
ing of the desolate sea, it could but grow deep and strong, if it 
grew to stand and flourish at all. 

How it took hold in that sterile spot ! Not the rigors of winter, 
nor the gloom of the forest, nor the fierce whoop of mortal foe, 
nor the sad psalm of ocean ever telling of the fatherland, — the old 
homes and altars and graves, — could shock its endurance, bend 
its determination, or pluck up a single fibre of its earth-clinging 
strength. Transplanting itself at the greatest sacrifice and peril, it 
had found a new soil whereon not to faint and perish, but to grow 
and expand, a shelter, and seed, and fruit, for countless coming 
generations. 

The Pilgrims have not been over-lauded. They had their foi- 
bles and faults, — their short-comings and lack of true godliness. 
All this is confessed on the fair page of their history. But the 



168 



evil of their lives is as nothing, when weighed against the good. 
All the heroism of great battles, where ambitious conquest was the 
goal, is less than that of the men and women who gave up all that 
was dear of native land and home, of place, wealth, and comfort, 
and dared, in the fragile Speedwell and Mayflower, cross the 
ocean, to plant a freer home for themselves, their child#en, and 
children's children. And their faith and endurance was like that 
of the martyrs, forced to a stake from whence there is no escap- 
ing, though their path was of their own seeking, and might have 
been abandoned at will. 

To the Pilgrims belongs preeminent fame. Their courage, their 
piety, and their love of liberty were grand. Other colonists, or 
adventurers, had more glittering objects before them. Mines of 
gold and silver, broad, rich plantations, profitable traffic and lives 
of luxurious ease or flattering preferment, allured them to the New 
World, They girded on the sword and shipped their merchandise 
for a worldly conquest. The Pilgrims were of another caste. 
They thought less of the mildness of climate, genial soil, and shin- 
ing treasures heaped in the earth's bosom. They sought asylum 
from the oppressor's hand. They desired a home where they 
might freely walk and worship. • The visions that charmed De 
Soto and Raleigh were to the Pilgrims as " sounding brass." So 
they turned their prows and steered their barks to bleaker shores. 
The wilderness was as nothing if the spirit could be unfettered, — 
the soul and the tongue free. 

Once transplanted, and the» beginning of a great end — an end 
far greater than they conceived — was accomplished. They had 
henceforth but to grow, as they did, against the buffetings of soil, 
climate, and savage foes ; against hardships unparalleled, and 
with a firm trust in God, undeviating from what they believed to 
be right, they wrote their record in patient, heroic deeds and lives, 
and left it, shining all over with great virtues, a proud bequest to 
their children and to after-times. All over New England and the 
Union, wherever the simple church-spire points heavenward, and 
the school-house stands an ark of light by the way-side, and the 
" decent graves " whiten the hill-slopes with their memorial 
stones, be sure the spirit of the Pilgrims has paused and passed. 



169 



And now, while thousands gather as at a family altar, yonder by 
the sea-shore, to pay glad tribute to the memory of the Pilgrims, 
the spirit of the little band through whom Plymouth is ever memo- 
rable walks mightily abroad, stirring millions of hearts through all 
the length and breadth of our land. Thus may it walk evermore, 
its holy memory a lesson and an inspiration. 

[August 3, 1853.] 

The Old Colony holiday is the theme of all the newspapers. 
The Celebration of the Embarkation of the Pilgrims from Delft 
Haven, which took place at Old Plymouth, on Monday, August 
1st, was a triumphant affair from beginning to end. There never 
has been a local celebration in this country, which has called forth 
more enthusiasm or more eloquence. The spirit of the occasion 
seemed to fill every heart with reverence and gratitude and joy. 
Almost every house in the town was decorated with flags, ever- 
greens, and mottoes ; while welcoming arches spanned all the prin- 
cipal streets. The throng of people was immense ; but the crowd, 
which seemed to be animated by one soul, was as still and orderly 
as a Sabbath congregation, only now and then giving vent in 
cheers to the irrepressible emotions inspired by some apt allusion 
to some thrilling reminiscence. The quotations and mottoes, pub- 
lished in to-day's Mirror, fully justify, by their appropriateness, 
the enthusiasm which they awakened, throughout the entire line of 
the procession. 

The objects of the Celebration are fully and eloquently stated in 
the able address of the President of the Pilgrim Society, which 
will be found in another column, and were fully discussed in the 
speeches that followed. The admirable speech of Governor Clif- 
ford, and a description of the " Decorations," must have prece- 
dence to-day ; to-morrow we hope to be able to give our readers a 
full and corrected report of Mr. Everett's great oration, — one of 
the most eloquent and beautiful forensic eflxjrts to which we have 
ever listened. There are passages in this magnificent speech that 
will be remembered and recited as long as Plymouth Rock en- 
dures, — as long as the spirit of the Pilgrims throbs in the grateful 
hearts of their descendants. Mr. Everett gave his " notes " to the 

22 



170 



reporters ; and his speech is published as it was written ; but 
there were several impromptu passages that burst from the speak, 
er's lips under the glowing inspiration of the moment, finer than 
any thing that appears in the printed speech. We hope to give, in 
a day or two, a perfect whole of this magnificent production, 
unmarred by the omission of a single word or punctuation-mark. 

The scene at the dinner was beautiful and imposing. Nearly 
three thousand persons seated under a tent almost as large as 
Franconi's Hippodrome, a liberal proportion of whom belonged 
to the ornamental half of humanity, was a sight well worth seeing. 
Such a congregation of beautiful women afforded more inspiration 
than the wine — that was n't there ; fine, fresh, rosy-cheeked 
maidens and matrons, embroidering the vast area like a bed of 
sweet " Mayflowers," produced an efTect " better imagined than 
described." 

The speaking, in the main, was excellent. Mr. Warren, to 
whom the sons of the Pilgrims are chiefly indebted for this glorious 
ovation, presided with admirable tact, and brought each speaker 
gracefully and opportunely before the audience. The only criti- 
cisms proper to make are such as are applicable to almost all public 
occasions. But we lack space for further comment upon the grand 
Celebration to-day. Many things were said and suggested on this 
occasion which we shall gladly recur to hereafter. 

In the mean time, we must not omit to remind the sons of New 
England that the material object of this Celebration was to raise 
funds for the purpose of erecting a monument upon the " Rock of 
Plymouth," and that already the response to the call has been 
prompt and generous. One of our merchant princes agrees to be 
one of fifty to raise the sum of fifty thousand dollars ; and we 
doubt not but there are " a few more left of the same sort " among 
us, who will do likewise. 



171 

THE CELEBRATION AT PLYMOUTH. 

[From the New York Courier and Enquirer.] 

It is not in wreaths and banners, nor in the excitement of fes- 
tivities, that such great gatherings waste their force. From the 
speeches of such men as Everett, from the great thoughts uttered, 
debark the Pilgrim opinions, finding their way sometimes to the 
cold and barren coast of ignorance or utter worldliness, but often 
to good and fertile soil, bringing forth most abundantly. The 
great doctrines urged and examined at this festival were in rela- 
tion to the duties of this republic in the future, whether it should 
be of universal conquest, or but from one good to another in con- 
tentment. Mr. Everett overlaid the path of ambition with all the 
gold of his eloquence. Governor Clifford, in indignant denuncia- 
tion of the Wandering Jew system, claimed that the men of the 
Mayflower taught us their best lesson, — moderation, repose in 
virtue. Mr. Everett suggested a republic which should hold with- 
in the sway of its institutions the Straits of Behring and of Ma- 
gellan. Acutely did John P. Hale say that henceforth the wild im- 
agery of Western orators would be considered tame and placid by 
the side of the bold pictures of the Pilgrim, and the audience looked 
significantly at Mr. Everett, who seemed to smile in significance 
of his belief that he had developed the real opinion of the mighty 
masses of the people. This restless foot of Progress may have 
come to Plymouth Rock, only that, by pressure on its iron-like 
strength, it might spring forward the more vigorously. The 
American people consult the labors of the reporter in these days, 
as of old they read the essayists, and the record of what the states- 
man thinks they study in that " four-paged folio." 

Scarce ever have I witnessed a scene more impressive than the 
pavilion presented, when, as the orator of 1820, Daniel Web- 
ster was remembered. It was announced, and up rose that 
great multitude, softly, silently, solemnly, while the melan- 
choly harmonies of a dirge seemed to speak most suitably the 
universal sorrow. 



172 



This was his own peculiar land. The distance to his last long 
home was but a brief one, and there were those in this throng who 
had borne his banner while he lived, and his pall when he died. 
Everett characterized the eulogy which Choate had so recently- 
pronounced of him, as matching the oratory which is enshrined in 
the world's memories. In assemblages like these, the great, the 
unavoidable fact that Massachusetts has no longer such a man, is 
made vividly present. Had he been here, he would, like Everett 
and Clifford, have aroused the public heart to the strange doctrines 
of " a necessity laid upon us " for conquest. But most fortunate 
Massachusetts never loses the connecting link in her illustrious 
chain. When Otis died, the Adamses were found, and they found 
a successor in Webster, and he in Everett. 

I think such gatherings as that at Plymouth answer the great 
question of Sir William Jones, " What constitutes a state ? " 
Certainly, here it is not the success of commerce, or the area of 
territory. One hour of Wall and South Streets would gorge State 
Street and Long Wharf. We could put Massachusetts in our " wil- 
derness district." It is the men, — the humanity, — the educated, 
cultured, thoughtful, eloquent. These tell the story, and form 
the history for Massachusetts. 

Very curious is the combination of the country and the town in 
Plymouth. Directly in rear of the street, the hills look as rural as 
if they never heard the tramp of a policeman near them. These 
crooked streets are picturesque, and have the wandering-about cast 
of character, which one would think the ways of the Pilgrims must 
have possessed, — "putting up" their houses just where it was 
easiest to get the brethren together, without thought of future city 
mappings. Leyden Street is somewhat straight, and so it ought to 
be, as it has a designation kindred to the land where every thing is 
fixed and certain. There are good points of defence or attack 
about, and they must have exercised in thoughts of fortress and 
strategy the good old soldiers of the Church. The hill, just in 
rear of the hotel, was the scene of a well-ihtentioned salute, but 
artillery had a flatness about it that indicated its duty as somewhat 
beyond its capacities, — in deep water, — off soundings. 

There are ornamental dwellings, savoring of Upjohn and other 



173 



teachers of the beautiful in arch and balcony and tower, and 
there are quaint structures, shinorled in all directions, as if that 
species of lumber in the time of our forefathers had been ridicu- 
lously cheap. Plymouth is like a room in which the furniture of 
the grandmother is yet allowed a place by the side of the last de- 
vice of the warerooms of Broadway. It is pleasant to see them 
thus mingled 

Who could have furnished the profusion of flags that floated at 
every available position ? It is usual for all gala days to interest 
the running up of a quantity of bunting, but Plymouth looked 
like a line of battle-ships adorned for a royal visit 

The Celebration has been completely successful. The alternat- 
ing cloud and sunshine of yesterday is to-day succeeded by a reg- 
ular blow, — such an one as, clothed with the frosts of December, 
seemed to be the warning to the forest men that their day was 
coming to the night. The streets of the Old Town are returning to 
their usual quiet. The orators and hearers, the men of far-off 
cities, return home, but not one that was present will ever forget 
the spectacle of the vast tent, whose crowded aisles were vocal 
with an eloquence which few in the Old or New World can parallel. 

The Plymouth people in their pavilion made every arrangement 
for the Press 

Will there ever be lull enough in the tempest of our commercial 
activity in New York, to celebrate the coming of Hendrick Hud- 
son, or shall we for ever forget the brave men that taught Ply- 
mouth's Pilgrims lessons of enterprise .'' 



It was a little after midnight on the confines that divide Saturday 
from Sunday, that your correspondent, in company with some very 
agreeable New-Yorkers, looked with great satisfaction on the 
legend which, over the south door of the Samoset hotel in the 
famous town of Plymouth, bore the words " Pilgrims' Home." 
The prestige of such words was delightful, for we were pilgrims. 
Of course the New York train had been just late enough on arriv- 
ing at Boston to lose us the five-o'clock run to Plymouth. The 
Old Colony Road runs one of its trains on Sunday, but New- York- 



174 



ers have consciences, and we determined to go on that same Sat- 
urday evening. It would have been very unlike the Press of New 
York to have faltered or hesitated. So we took the next train, and, 
reaching Centre Abington, found a long ride before us ; but good 
horses and sober drivers will enable one to traverse even the laby- 
rinthine ways of New England roads, and the shadows of the 
midnight hours brought us to the world-known destination of the 
Pilgrims. 

Sharp was the ringing at that door, whose promise was so hos- 
pitable ; the sound ought to have woke up Rip Van Winkle, but 
he did not belong to this locality. It aroused the Irish domestics, 
and, with the exquisite imagination of the bard Tom Moore, to our 
anxious inquiries as to the probabilities of rooms, they assured us 
that there were several at our service, and very good ones. It was 
a pleasant exercise of fancy ; " with the future, cool reflection 
came," and it came in the guise of a landlord, who portrayed the 
utter impossibility of any human being accommodated, &c. ; — all 
of us have heard this in our experiences. It is an impossibility 
which gilds the merciful dispensation of the fourth story thereafter 
made. And at last we accomplished a safe lodgment. It was 
high and somewhat gregarious, but Robinson and Bradford came 
to Plymouth two hundred and thirty-three years since, and found 
much poorer arrangements. A difficulty in arriving at Plymouth 
was precisely what history had led us to anticipate. 

To commemorate the Embarkation of the Pilgrims from Delft 
Haven is the object of the great gathering which, while I write, is 
filling the streets of Plymouth, and is crowding within the vast area 
of the pavilion tent. It is, I believe, the first public acknowledg- 
ment of this day ; and it is a delightful evidence of the ingenuity of 
those of our nation whose homes are first illuminated by the rising 
sun, that they have now found out an attraction towards the East in 
the pleasant days of summer. We cannot, with a due attention to our 
creature comforts, come on the twenty-second day of December. 
Then the wild winds would howl out such a welcome as they gave 
Elder Brewster, and we should stand in shivering admiration on 
the Rock, and so the day of departure rather than that of arrival 
has been selected. It is ingenious, and of that Oriental type which 



175 



so often astonishes mankind. I thought there was more wit and 
point in one of the inscriptions, than in all the more elaborate 
devices. Thus it said : " Forefathers^ Bay thawed outy The 
author of that is bright. I would like his companionship on a 
cloudy day. 

Plymouth, before the construction of the Old Colony Railroad, 
must have been a locality to find which a visitor must have been 
in earnest. It is in situation and circumstance very different from 
the thought generally cherished in respect to it. The current idea 
of it is of a small and very old settlement, with a bold bluff point 
projecting out into the sea, and the Rock the most conspicuous fea- 
ture of the scene. Such is the Plymouth of the mind, — but the 
realities are different. Behind two or three enfoldings of cape and 
beach and sea-wall, it is about the last place into which a vessel 
would be sure to come as an affair of course. It must have per- 
plexed the pilot of the Mayjlower to have threaded his way in and 
out of the harbor. It has its shelter from the sea. The meanings 
of the ocean are heard, but it is as one hears the roof-rain. The 
stirring scenes of wreck may be near, but there are no disasters to 
be experienced within. It was a shielding and sheltering destiny 
that found culmination here. 

We all rushed to find that Rock. Not first to have gone thither, 
would have been to forget St. Peter while on a visit to Rome. Is 
it here that Plymouth keeps its proudest memorial ? To find it, 
one goes through a series of streets that have " an ancient and 
fish-like affinity," — stores whose signs (they have the Maine Law 
here now) bear the odoriferous legend of " West India Goods." 
The guide to the Rock to-day was an inscription, not in letters of 
iron or carvings of granite, but in a " chalk formation," on a door 
belonging to an habitation of some body who was sagacious 
enough to know that some pilotage along these wharves was neces- 
sary. A short turn down a narrow street brings to the Rock ! 
Before the citizens of New York would allow a memorial so pre- 
cious to be buried up, obscured amidst wooden warehouses, — 
with an old wooden wharf pushing its impudence into the waters, as 
if with a most radical progress, — "our people" would sell the 
Battery and mortgage the Park. 



176 



But Plymouth promises a better day, and when did Massachu- 
setts ever promise and fail to fulfil ? This celebration is to b*egin 
the noble enterprise of the erection of a monument, to be raised, 
they say, on the very Rock ; not, with miserable taste, torn by 
fragments, — this piece in a far-off street, and that in a still more 
distant steeple ; but right there, — there where those noble-hearted 
men first felt the presence of that land which they educated to 
such nobleness and freedom by their abiding in Holland, — so soon 
shaped into the land of order and law and religion. There it will 
rise, and the mariner shall watch it, teaching the- sea that thus far, 
and no farther, shall its proud waves go. To this good work 
Plymouth has, within the last few days, given generously ; and 
there was a glorious burst of applause through this vast pavilion, 
when the letter of Moses H. Grinnell announced, with charac- 
teristic generosity, that in this right and righteous labor " New 
York was with them." 

Plymouth was radiant with floral wreathings. The descendants 
of the gentle and determined women who accompanied the Pil- 
grims to these shores, in the taste which seems to be natural to 
the sex, have so charmingly bound together the beauty by which 
the earth yet indicates its descent from Eden, that we have 
turned to-day from arch to canopy, from bower to window, from 
balcony to pillar, and seen in each that loveliness which speaks out 
in language that would be harsh, if it were clothed in words. 
There seemed to be one general combination to set Old Plymouth 
in a frame of flowers ; and the well-ordered, respectable, and re- 
spectful crowd who thronged these streets felt that there was in 
all this a language of welcome which the open-doored hospitality 
of these citizens, at every hour, illustrated and confirmed. 

Miles Standish was a glorious old soldier. The veteran would 
have felt the blood in his veins flow quicker if he had believed it 
possible that where he trod would afterwards tread such march of 
discipline, of vigorous and brave men, as the Light Guard dis- 
played. I felt proud, as a New-Yorker, of this representation of 
soldiery who guard our own great State, — men whose bayonets 
read their duty by the light of the law. 

The cars this morning brought in a numerous representation of 



177 

the bright and brilliant, and wise and solid men of Boston. That 
long enduring and almost perpetual Constitutional Convention, 
which seems to have borrowed the elixir of life from our extra 
session, kept away from us Choate, — and this was almost taking 
the Koh-i-noor out of a coronet of diamonds ; but fortunately they 
could not keep from us Edward Everett, and this glorious orator 
one of the few among us who keeps up in our day the memories 
of such vivid eloquence as we were wont to hear from Clay and 
Webster. 

In the morning there was a fog spread over the harbor and 
town. (Your correspondent suggested it might better have been 
mist.) It was symbolic of the tears these Pilgrim Fathersshed. 
The afternoon — it smiled in the gladness of a glittering sun. The 
happiness of the children of the Pilgrims was figured in the lus- 
tre. The garlands of the decorated houses and arches revived in 
the radiance. The day that had begun with gloom ended in light. 
The heavens often unite such lessons in their shining and their 
shadows. 

The scene in the pavilion was magnificent. The area under 
canvas was so great as to cause its capacity to contain a multi- 
tude to be equalled by that of few buildings even in our own 
great city, — and this vast space was filled. There, in one great 
throng, was the grouping of more pretty faces than has been ever 
before seen in Plymouth, though the portrait of the same Penel- 
ope Pelham, at which I gazed admiringly this morning in Pilgrim 
Hall, proves that beauty did not omit to dwell on the earth in 
the days of the men of the Mayflower. 

There upon the dais were gathered men illustrious by public 
service and by the might of intellect. Cliflx»rd, who has to-day by 
his admirable address proved that he fills with honor the execu- 
tive chair of a State whose chief magistrates have so often been 
men of mark, — the elder Quincy, who more than any man now 
living has mingled with and participated in the great men and 
events of our country,— Everett, who proves that eloquence has 
its home in the present as in the past, — Sumner, with his vivid 
philosophy, — these are not ordinary names, and the enthusiastic 
applause of the multitude indicated the grasp on the heart which 

23 



178 

the utterance of each secured. There was more genuine, glowing 
eloquence uttered to-day, beneath the pavilion's folds, than I have 
heard in many a long day, and if our readers would appreciate 
the strength of the compliment, they should remember that for 
several months your correspondent has attended our Legislature. 

And all around was a crowd of attentive and orderly people ; — 
many from Boston, a good representation from our own great 
city, and not a few from the sister States. They were an appro- 
ciative audience. They were hushed as night at the magnificent 
sentences of Everett, and when that voice of more than silver 
sweetness spoke of the progress of our country, winged by Re- 
ligion, Law, and Liberty, there seemed to be but one voice, and 
th^at exultation that such a sentiment had found such pronuncia- 
tion. 

I saw one policeman. He looked solitary, and if an officer of 
the law could be disconsolate because nobody erred, such was his 
sorrow. This was not a meeting within the protection of walls, 
but almost an open-air gathering, and yet no regiment of rowdyism 
rent either the canvas or the air. Elder Brewster might have 
preached here and delighted in the quiet of his audience, though 
I think Mrs. Brewster would have stared at the head-dresses. 

There were responses to the proposal for a monument, which 
indicated that the pulse of Boston liberality begins, even now, to 
beat quickly to such a good work. The Hon. David Sears was 
detained from attending, but he gave five hundred good reasons for 
his absence, and in his right of citizenship of this region, being a 
Cape Cod man, he declared his intention of advancing more of 
the same agreeable nature. All of us who have strolled along 
Beacon Street have greatly admired the superb mansion of this 
gentleman, and the reflection is delightful, that a generous man 
has around him so much of beauty, for they alone deserve it. 

The speeches at the festival were of a class and character 
never to be forgotten. Governor Clifford had the ease and com- 
pleteness of sentence indicating the possession of thought and lan- 
guage. Ex-Senator Hale, formerly of New Hampshire, appeared 
to good advantage, talking like a statesman, and discoursing in a 
style, and with a dignity, which was much more acceptable and 



179 



appropriate than when he allows himself to take part in comedy ; 
but it was in and around Everett that the great glories of the 
day centred. That full, rich voice poured out its grateful utter- 
ances, and the hearer realized that what was said was of a de- 
gree of thought which would deserve memory. His speech will 
be read. There are passages in it which will take place 
among our classics ; and among these, a high station will be 
given to that wealth of words in which the majesty of the dis- 
covery of America was portrayed, or that gorgeous picture of 
the future, to which the strength of enterprise, companioned by 
virtue, was heralding our people. The hushed breathing of the 
great auditory allowed those splendid sentences to be audible 
through the pavilion, which, when the figure was finished, flut- 
tered with the unrestrainable shouts of admiration. 

To such thorough sentences it has seldom been my good fate to 
listen. I have heard the magical voice of Clay, and felt as all 
around me, like clinging to him through all his fortunes, won by his 
fascination ; but these sentences of Everett owed but little to eye 
and look and gesture, though all these in gracefulness are his. 

Sumner either hesitated and was forced to think out in advance 
that which he desired to say, or else, with Everett before him and 
so much of Massachusetts around him, he weighed very carefully 
the full import and meaning of his opinions. Men have need so 
to do in these days of the power of the press. That great estate 
of the realm was thoroughly represented here, and those who ad- 
dress their fellow-men have learned how much more powerfully 
they talk through the transmission of types, than by their words, 
however eloquently given. 

Massachusetts indicated to-day that her race of men of intellect- 
ual strength is not extinct. This town of Plymouth had gathered 
at her shores some of the proudest names of the Commonwealth, 
and the audience confessed that their reputation had not been 
exaggerated. 

I am a little surprised that no one pledged the memory of Bel- 
zoni. It was this energetic Italian who cleared away the sand 
from the Pyramids and revealed Egypt's monumental glory. Pre- 
cisely like him should be some of the Plymouth men. This great 



180 



procession was taken down through the Wapping district, — near 
those ships in which at low tide the vessels that make up the ma- 
rine list of Plymouth curiously balance themselves on their keels, 
or dislocate all the crockery in the cook's caboose by heeling 
over. All through this region went the patrician and plebeian mul- 
titude. An arch, somewhat gayly entwined by its bright colors, 
amazed the unpainted locality, and indicated the Rock. Over 
the Rock went all the crowd, — each one, not native to this coast, 
wondering, as he trod over it, what manner of remembrance was 
it of this noble memorial, to allow it to maintain a struggle for ex- 
istence over the perils of that road-way. Belzoni would have 
taken a vigorous view of this subject, and given these people a 
specimen of the same energy by which he took the dust out of the 
eyes of Memnon's morning-music statue ; — and thus it is that your 
correspondent would have the old Italian remembered. He left a 
good example, and one which Plymouth should heed. 

It is possible, quite possible, within the power of money, to so 
remove all that now surrounds this stone, as that it would again 
be — what it probably was, and what every body, except those who 
rashly test imagination by fact now believe it to be — directly at 
the water-edge, so that at full tide a boat might well come up to it, 
and voyagers step upon it. A few warehouses must come down 
to produce such a result, and a few hundred feet of wharf; but 
except the cost, there is no obstacle, and as to the cost, there are 
sons of New England in the city of New York who would deem 
it honor and pleasure to identify their names with the labors of 
such good work. 

Every one who visits here must realize that the obliteration of 
the old landing features of this memorable place has been disas- 
trous. If New York or Albany could identify the precise spot 
where Hendrick Hudson, so many years before the Mayflower was 
on the seas, stood in adventurous step, in their limits, they would 
preserve and protect it. The nation has a right to demand from 
the Old Colony, to preserve in all its distinctness what Time, rav- 
ager as he is, has spared. 

They have a model of the Mayflower in Pilgrims' Hall. It was 
built by all the aid of whatever was known by history or picture 



181 



of the naval architecture of that period. Shipmen of this locality 
superintended it, and it was afterwards submitted to Mr. Forbes, 
of Boston. It is not wonderful that the dear old ship had a four 
months' voyage with such a build ; very little of the clipper is there 
about it, and the Sovereign of the Seas or the Flying Cloud, in a 
race to California, could give her a start as far as Cape Horn, and 
then reach the Golden Gate, and begin to discharge cargo, before 
she arrived. 

But the Mayflower was comfortable. That high stern had a 
sheltering look, and I fancy that her wooden walls were more 
comfortable than was the abode on this coast in that wild De- 
cember. 

I greatly enjoyed the far-spread view which is seen from the 
hill on which is the burial-ground. This occupies an admirable 
position for an ornamental cemetery. All before it lies the town, 
and beyond, the bay. All its incidents of point and headland and 
light-houses, and the ocean, are revealed in beauty. It has the 
churches at once in sight ; and this place of the dead, associated 
with all the annals of sickness and suffering of so many years, is 
but a few paces distant from happy homes and prosperous people. 
The Mayflower voyagers, I suppose, were not buried here. The 
grave, revealing its story of weakness and loss, would not have 
been placed in a position so conspicuous. Probably by the water- 
side, in rude tombs, were deposited those worthies, of whom Scott 
says so beautifully, that England flung them forth as a drunkard 
would cast from his lap precious jewels. If remembrances of good 
name and mention make men famous, to have the eloquence of 
this day find its grateful theme of their virtue has achieved a fame 
for the Pilgrims, the like of which men have died willingly to ac- 
quire. There are few monumental memorials of these men here, 
or of those immediately coming after them. 

At night, Plymouth was bright with dwellings and other build- 
ings illuminated, and vocal with the music of a skilful band. 
These sons of the Pilgrims remembered the sorrowing debarkation 
from Delft Haven, by festive and brilliant gatherings. Rockets 
bursting into fires of golden or ruby colors were radiant messen- 
gers so far skyward, that it may well be that many a story of 



182 



strange meteors will be brought to port by the mariners whose 
craft were passing by. 

The people thronged the streets, but all quiet, and somewhat 
grave. As the Manxman says to Buckingham, in " Peveril of the 
Peak," — " There is a touch of the old Puritan about me yet." 

The hospitalities of Mr. Warren, the President of the Society, 
(and who, I believe, we claim now as a resident of New York,) 
closed the day. Its incidents cannot be forgotten. No one with 
memories worth possessing can cease to recall with delight the ad- 
dress of Everett, nor shall we fail to remember that, prominent 
among the listeners to his splendid pictures of our country's prog- 
ress, was one who had been a companion of Hancock and of 
Washington. Plymouth has to-day welcomed many who will 
•often hereafter make pilgrimages to this new Mecca. 

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